Intersectionality in Feminist Political Ecology with Professor Andrea Nightingale

Political Ecology Forum @NMBU

In this episode, Professor Nightingale discusses feminist perspectives and Political Ecology from an anti-essentialist viewpoint.

My name is Carmen Mapis, and I am a Ph.D. candidate for the Department of Urban Planning and Development at NMBU. I produce and interview different academics within the wide field of Political Ecology.

In this episode of the Political Ecology Podcastforum, we had the pleasure of speaking with Professor Andrea Nightingale from the University of Oslo about non-essentialist feminist perspectives in analyzing cases from a political ecology lens.

Professor Nightingale began by explaining the differences between essentialist and non-essentialist feminist perspectives. Essentialism, she argued, views gender as a fixed and innate characteristic, whereas non-essentialist perspectives recognize gender as socially constructed and continually negotiated.

The conversation then turned to apply non-essentialist feminist perspectives in political ecology. Professor Nightingale discussed how these perspectives could help to uncover how gendered power relations intersect with other forms of power, such as class and race, to shape environmental governance and decision-making.

To illustrate this point, she provided examples from her research on environmental governance in Nepal and Iceland. She discussed how gendered power relations played out differently in each context, highlighting the importance of situating analyses within specific socio-cultural and political contexts.

The conversation then delved into the challenges of applying non-essentialist feminist perspectives in practice, such as navigating tensions between universalizing tendencies in academic discourse and the need to attend to local specificities. Professor Nightingale also discussed the importance of reflexivity and the need for researchers to know of their positionality and potential biases.

This episode provided a thought-provoking discussion on the relevance and potential of non-essentialist feminist perspectives in political ecology research. We thank Professor Nightingale for sharing her insights and expertise with us.