Caring for energy, energy to care: Exploring the energy-care nexus through examples from Sweden and India

As the climate crisis continues to grow, there is an increasing focus both in research and policy spaces on the need and urgency of energy transitions. In this perspective, we urge scholars, policymakers and social movements to recognize the ways that care work and practices of care are intersecting with everyday experiences of energy use. Through case studies from India and Sweden, we depict how care activities and energy use intertwine in people\u27s daily lives in ways that are often deeply gendered. These two settings serve to illustrate our argument that energy and care are and must be deeply interlinked, in two main directions: energy as enabler or disabler of care work, and care work as shaping demands on energy access. To ensure a just energy transition where care is enabled and fairly shared, care must be an inherent part of energy transition analyses

Masculinisation and Isolation of the Swedish Anti-Nuclear Movement After 1980: A Call for Environmentalists to Learn from the Past

W\ue5gstr\uf6m shows how ecomodern masculinisation has transformed and dissipated the Swedish anti-nuclear movement since the rise of neoliberalism in the 1980s. Changes entail an exclusion of traits and knowledges that are considered feminine (in Global Northern ideologies based on gender dualisms), including moral and ethical considerations. Drawing on similarities between this movement and recent endeavours for climate justice—both being led by girls and women, both having justice as core concerns—W\ue5gstr\uf6m encourages climate activists to contemplate the decline of the anti-nuclear movement in order to avoid a similar destiny. If the climate justice movement is to stand a chance against neoliberal assimilation and destructive masculinisation, it must continue to see the freedom of all as a part of its own struggle. It must continue to criticise reforms not\ua0only intended to combat environmental problems, but that can also be\ua0blind to social injustices. In times of neoliberal hegemony, this is not the easiest task

Going Forth with Gusto and Grace

Crafted as “dessert,” this chapter summarises the “dinner party” conversation that has served as a response to the social and ecological problems of our times, with a particular focus on men, masculinities, and Earth. Here, we note the importance of a collaborative approach to developments in this academic field and its pluralised praxes. We revisit the three principle motivators for hosting this conversation; firstly, to expand the bounds of collaborations on masculinities and environmental issues; secondly, to provide a constructive response to recent historical developments on both social and environmental fronts; thirdly, to summarise the collaborative and complementary perspectives (and their accompanying knowledges) that can be considered\ua0the latest developments in ecological masculinities. We also suggest six paths forwards for future research and praxes noting the importance of: tackling alarming contemporary global trends frontally; addressing these problems personally, politically, and glocally; recognising intersectional analyses that stretch our view beyond Global Northern constructs; ensuring that those who are traditionally marginalised are heard, take leadership, are backed to do so, and are welcomed to hold the ecological masculinities discourse accountable, giving particular attention to queer ecologies; encouraging fresh research on masculine ecologisation; supporting Earth Rights. These six forward-facing themes represent areas of current and future development in ecological masculinities that are\ua0(at the time of this writing) the most influential in shaping the growth and development of\ua0this conversation

Discussions at the Table

Challenged on multiple fronts, humanity and Earth are caught in a tangle. The chapter that follows is\ua0an introduction to the next steps in the unfolding international conversation on ecological masculinities. Here, Pul\ue9, Hultman, and W\ue5gstr\uf6m discuss the gendered origins of social inequities and the imminent threats of\ua0ecological collapse. Building on Hultman and Pul\ue9’s monograph, Ecological Masculinities (2018), this contribution “sets a table” in preparation for a discussion over a “meal” that nourishes our understandings of men, masculinities, and Earth. The contribution is divided into three key sections. Firstly, we offer\ua0an honouring of early and ecologically concerned feminists. These scholars and activists have been forewarning us of our calamitous social and ecological\ua0course for more than a century; their concerns guide the conceptual foundations of ecological masculinities. Influences from environmental historians, ecocritics, queer theorists, and profeminist sociologists are similarly credited for having helped shape the\ua0discussions ahead. Secondly, the contribution proceeds to a cautionary tale, noting the essentialist pitfalls of men’s mythopoesis and the individualised aggrandisement of libertarians as two phenomena that have glutted the men’s space, particularly in the Global North, deadening many from acknowledging humanity’s precipitous standing and obscuring\ua0our\ua0species authentic engagements with the broader, deeper, and wider care that is urgently needed to pull away from disaster. Thirdly, we introduce the six discussions that make up\ua0this anthology, along with a synopsis of each of the various contributions provided by this growing community of practice. These contributions are the equivalent of “dishes” that each contributor as a “dinner guest” has brought to share; each of them clustered into one of six discussions focused on various aspects of the evolving conversation on ecological masculinities