Resources

What does it mean to develop or defend a feminist perspective on climate change and climate science? This question lies at the heart of our research project – yet it is one that we cannot yet fully answer. This resource page should therefore be taken to be a collection of ideas, questions and texts which we currently take to be of importance or use from a feminist perspective, but which will change and morph over time and is open for feedback.

Below we have put together key topics and discussions related to climate change and climate science which are either particularly central to feminist approaches or which – in our view – can benefit from insights from feminist philosophy. Below each topic, we list key texts on this topic and – where possible – texts that already bring feminist resources to bear on questions related to climate change. This is meant to provide an overview for those who are interested in this field and also highlight questions and issues which might need more research. If you are interested in a broader overview of resources from philosophy of climate science, you can find a general, annotated bibliography at philoclimate.ch/bib/.

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(IN)JUSTICE
Feminist philosophy is a project centred on injustice because it seeks to dismantle the structural and systemic oppression of patriarchy and colonialism, which has historically and continues to create unequal power dynamics, discrimination, and violence against marginalised groups. Injustice can materialise in form of unjust laws and rights, economic exploitation, underrepresentation, discrimination, violence and harm. Within the context of the climate crisis, the concept of “climate injustice” is used to understand how climate impacts interact with existing systems of privilege and oppression and disproportionately harms those least responsible. Climate ethics has particularly discussed international and intergenerational injustices, and to a lesser extent interspecies injustice. A specific form of injustice which has been explored in recent epistemology is that of “epistemic injustice” which is the wrong done to a person or a group of persons in their capacity as knowers. In the context of climate change, this might well be another form of climate injustice.

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VALUES
Furthermore, feminist epistemology puts forward normative recommendations regarding the aims scientific research should pursue, and the way the scientific community should be organised in order to ensure critical reflexivity and a diversity of viewpoints. Philosophical discourses have focused on the role that social, ethical and political (i.e. non-epistemic) values can play in climate science. Ongoing discussions concern the questions of when such value-influences are legitimate, how to manage values, and what it means for science to be objective if objectivity is not value-neutrality. 

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DIVERSITY AND PLURALISM
Debates on scientific pluralism and diversity explore how scientific knowledge is shaped by disciplinary and social perspectives, methods, hermeneutical and ontological resources. Feminist philosophers in particular have argued that having a scientific community whose members have different social background and scientific perspectives is both ethically and epistemologically desirable. Current debates explore also how and when transdisciplinary research, knowledge co-production, citizen science or community-based research benefits science and society.

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INDIGENOUS AND LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
Currently, climate research shows an effort to align with such expectations by, as an example, integrating Indigenous and Local Knowledge in standard scientific understanding, assessments, and projections of the climate system. The historical relation between scientific communities, Indigenous peoples and local communities is, however, marked by epistemic dominance. Therefore, there are clear epistemic risks embedded in collaboration efforts such as the appropriation and datafication of Indigenous and local knowledge.

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ACTIVISM AND SOCIALLY ENGAGED SCIENCE
The relevant philosophical literature also questions the possibility for scientists to practice activism, intended as taking a proactive stance, advocating for specific policies or decisions or being otherwise engaged for societal change. Indeed, doing so conflicts with the traditional epistemological and scientific norm of neutrality, which maintains that science and politics should be strictly separated. 

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(DIS)TRUST
Trust is an attitude that permeates epistemic, social, and political relationships. Involving more than mere reliance, it implies normative expectations grounded in vulnerability. Feminist epistemology has emphasized how one’s social location affects the attribution of trustworthiness and the valuing of one’s credibility, due to power dynamics and systemic inequalities. The vulnerability of communities to climate change and their epistemic dependence on scientific expertise to understand, adapt, and mitigate it make trust a crucial element. Indeed, given climate science’s epistemic authority and institutional power, the literature on trust and climate science addresses for example the moral dimensions of communication as well as problems stemming from ongoing efforts to discredit legitimate and valuable knowledge. 

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CARE
Often overlooked in climate discourses, care addresses the emotional and existential dimensions of living within a community and an ecosystem. Feminist philosophers have developed care as a normative and conceptual tool that frames our responsibilities towards each other and the environment we live in, focusing on interdependence, vulnerability, and attentiveness towards the material and non-material needs of who and what surrounds us.

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