ABSTRACT
As the main editor of this collection, I’m especially pleased to be able to include this chapter on ecofeminism. Both its content and its format illustrate what it means to operate beyond reductionism. Here Ariel Salleh, Mary Mellor and I explore ecofeminism as an example of ‘best practice’ ecological economics – beyond reductionism. The chapter is an open-ended conversation with a few reflective comments from Vandana Shiva woven in as well. The text ranges across the themes of Nature and Labour, Holism and Value, Technology and Myth, Complexity Theory, and Dialectical Thinking. By working through the relationship between ecological economics and ecofeminism in this way, we are putting ecofeminism into practice in the here and now. We explore the ideas raised here together, in cooperation as companions. Ariel and Mary, since you have both been working with ecofeminist ideas for many years, perhaps we should begin by giving readers a brief introduction to the topic?
