Unearthing feminist territories and terrains

Changing geographies of the state: themes, challenges and futures

“…Viewed thus, the state is a form of potential domination -a complex mixture of social practices that are potentially spatially discriminating and marginalizing (McDowell 1999). The focus may be, for instance, on how certain identities are privileged in state strategies and how the structures of the state tend to reinforce gender biases, as well as how patriarchal relations make a difference to state spatiality and the construction and management of state territory (Jackman et al 2020). This is particularly important in some policy sectors such as security policy, where women's voices are not only excluded from professional discussions, but also in terms of how key questions around whose security is at stake are negotiated (or neglected) in both war and everyday life (Dowler et al 2014;Enloe 2000;Fluri 2011;Hörschelmann and Reich 2017).…”

Drilling for the future: Gendered justifications of the Arctic fossil fuel industry

“…The narrative of territory (especially in the Arctic context) has been characterised by the "dominance of a calculative lens" (Jackman et al, 2020, p.2) emphasising the role of technology. In a similar vein, feminist scholars have criticised the framing of climate change as a technological challenge (see, e.g.…”

“…Feminist scholars have criticised traditional ecomodernist solutions that have simultaneously facilitated a "downgrading of ethical concerns," such as justice, economic equity or health (MacGregor, 2009, p.128). Feminist (and postcolonial) perspectives should be laid out as a counterpoint to technological understandings of the earth (Jackman et al, 2020) and remain at the center when new terrains are explored (Jackman et al, 2020;Squire & Dodds, 2020). Feminist discussions on environment highlight the significance of care and ethics within climate change, especially in relation to future generations and global inequalities (see, e.g.…”

“…Concepts such as ethics and care offer a counterpoint to technology driven apprehensions of the earth (Jackman, Squire, Bruun & Thornton, 2020). In order to justify their operations in the Arctic, the Norwegian and Russian companies emphasise claims based on narratives that have historically been associated with masculine practices, such as the control of nature enabled by technology (Haraway, 1988;Jackman et al, 2020;MacGregor, 2010MacGregor, , 2009, rather than feminine ones, such as the wellbeing of nature or care (Bauhardt & Harcourt, 2019;Robinson, 2011). The historical narratives of Arctic exploration and conquest have continued to some extent in the modern hydrocarbon industry.…”

“…Jackman et al (2020) reflect on the concepts of terrain and territory, encouraging a feminist perspective for approaching and re-crafting them. This allows expanding the historical approach towards understanding a region like the Arctic, which has been "told and retold as a story of control enabled by calculative technologies" (Jackman et al, 2020, p.3). The history of Arctic (male) explorers and, for example, glaciology, in which the performance of masculinity determined the dominant knowledge within the field (Carey et al, 2016;Hevly, 1996), have also impacted current narratives on the region.…”