Gender and environment: critical tradition and new challenges

This paper is part of an ongoing conversation about the current state and future directions of gender and environment theory and practice. Inspired by the panel session “Gender and Environment: Critical Tradition and New Challenges” that took place on April 14, 2010, as part of the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Washington, DC, this paper highlights the current questions present in the gender and environment literature within geography. Drawing directly from this panel discussion of leading scholars, it explores the ways in which the boundaries of the field are being redefined through the inclusion of new ways of understanding gender, the environment, and their relation to one another, allowing for a more thorough understanding of the spatial practices that interweave gender, sexuality, nature and environmental politics. What follows is a collaborative effort in which panelists’ interventions, their responses to one another, and our own thoughts are all put into conversation. Throughout this discussion three main themes emerge and are elaborated on: The importance of moving beyond men and women; the need to be attentive to entangled connections through scales, sites and struggles; and the need to honestly interrogate the politics of knowledge production.