Rural poverty and impoverished theory: Cultural populism, ecofeminism, and global justice

Abstract

The ‘left’ populist argument of ‘culturally-perceived’ poverty, proposed by subsistence ecofeminist Vandana Shiva, is gaining increasing currency in the contemporary ‘Anti-Globalization’ Movement. This article maintains that, instead of challenging neoliberalism, however, this notion lends itself to complicity with it and, moreover, with fundamentalist and reactionary currents that are on the rise worldwide. In order to make this case, it examines four main political currents influencing Shiva: Gandhism, Western maternal feminism, the post-development framework of Gustavo Esteva, and the New Age eco-spirituality of Rudolph Bahro. Also considered are some of the theoretical overlaps with the Right in which Shiva and these mentoring currents have become implicated.