ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the conceptual framework that underpins the research in this book. Integral to each of the debates discussed in Chapter 2 has been the bind posed by intersectionality: how to maintain a theoretical commitment to intersectional feminism while pursuing collective political projects in spaces of global governance such as the UNFCCC. Despite the importance of intersectional ideas to these feminist debates, there has been a lack of dialogue between environmental (and climate) justice frameworks and intersectional frameworks. This chapter offers such a conceptual framework that puts into conversation theories and ideas that have emerged from decades of ecofeminist (and other feminist environmental) scholarship with concepts of intersectionality in this chapter. This framework offers an important intellectual contribution to the intersectional study of environmental issues in ways that take seriously the role and agency of nature and its position in intersecting lines of marginalisation and oppression and destruction. This chapter is not intended to be understood as an ‘off-the-shelf’ solution for studying climate politics in intersectional ways, but they do offer a potentially rich dialogue between climate justice projects and intersectionality.
