Research
You will find a complete range of our monographs, muti-authored and edited works including peer-reviewed, original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the complete Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
Despite the urgency to understand how ‘other’ cultures encounter ‘the West’ in academic and political spheres, feminist economics has yet to tackle critiques from postcolonial and decolonial feminists about Western-centric modernism in the field.
This book introduces a decolonizing approach to feminist economics, offering insights that move beyond the boundaries of modern Eurocentrism. The author explores the relationship between colonialism, capitalism, heteropatriarchy and ecological degradation, while offering critical feminist and decolonizing tools. By investigating global struggles, the author illuminates our hijacked present and imagines a decolonizing feminist economic landscape that is under transformation.
Transdisciplinary and innovative, this book fills a vital gap by exploring the interplay between decolonization and feminist economics, challenging the growth logic, capitalism and Western-centrism, and imagining new possibilities for more just futures.
Chapter 8 outlines eight interconnected strategies for developing a decolonizing feminist economics framework: embodying feminist economics; recognizing Indigenous sovereignty and freedom; interrogating Orientalism, Eurocentrism and developmentalism; advocating for plural economic knowledges; questioning the meaning of value; resisting capitalist growth economies; advancing economic justice through reparations, land return and wealth redistribution; and embracing a common world as a political commitment. This map offers both theoretical and practical tools and methodologies, drawing on concepts such as ecoSImies of care, mestiza methodology and radical solidarity to foster alternative economic thinking.
Building on themes discussed throughout the book, Chapter 8 aims to transcend existing feminist economics paradigms. It offers a decolonizing perspective on how feminist economics can break free from mainstream economic frameworks and create possibilities for just futures.
In Chapter 4, the focus is on extractivism and its fundamental logics, aiming to deepen critiques of the concept of ‘sustainability’ within economics. The chapter argues that comprehending the extensive reach of extractivist economic practices enables a more profound exploration of their effects on individuals, ecosystems, societies and economies.
Through this exploration, the chapter delineates six key characteristics inherent in extractivist and productivist economic logics, drawing on real-life examples from resistance movements to examine avenues for subversion and alternative approaches.
The Introduction addresses the apocalyptic economic ideology that presents a dichotomy between extinction and solutionism. It argues that in this framework, saving the world from destruction often translates into preserving the unjust structures of capitalism. The chapter challenges this apocalyptic dogma by suggesting that alternatives do exist. Drawing on the works of Mark Fisher, Marina Garcés and Étienne de La Boétie, it highlights critique, imagination and embodiment as essential tools for emancipating ourselves from this dogma and opening up possibilities for living well together in just futures.
Additionally, the Introduction presents the main concepts of the book, outlines its structure and offers its key questions.
Chapter 6 explores the concept of climate colonialism, examining its implications and advocating for radical solidarity as a response. It introduces ecoSImies of care as a critical approach that reflects contemporary awareness of our lifestyles and the importance of a dignified existence. The chapter suggests three practical emancipatory criteria of ecoSImies of care to facilitate economic analysis and action in contemporary economies and solidarities.
Additionally, Chapter 6 examines the ‘Sí al Yasuní’ movement, highlighting its pivotal role in challenging extractivist logic and underscoring the urgent need to prioritize environmental and social sustainability over resource extraction and exploitation.
Chapter 2 acknowledges the significant contributions of feminist economics, emphasizing that these achievements are neither insignificant nor easily won. However, it also argues that feminist economics continues to grapple with critiques from decolonizing feminisms, particularly regarding its developmentalist and Western-centric modernist assumptions.
This chapter explores the theoretical limitations of feminist economics and proposes ways to address them by examining four key problematics: the issue of the subject; cultural bias; equality fictions such as equal opportunities, gender equality and human rights; and the challenge of imagination and feminist contradictions. To address these challenges, Chapter 2 advocates for a feminist decolonizing approach that confronts heteropatriarchy, colonialism, capitalism and ecological degradation.
This chapter delves into the postcolonial artistic works of Ursula Biemann and Rita Wong to critically examine the extensive oil extraction processes in the Northern Alberta sands and their profound impacts on Indigenous communities and the climate. Through their art, Chapter 5 argues, Biemann and Wong showcase forms of resistance and movement-building that challenge extractivist and productivist mentalities, offering a glimpse of alternative, sustainable ways of relating to the land and the beings that inhabit it.
