Vandana Shiva

Maria Mies

Two of Zed's best-known authors, one an economist, the other a physicist and philosopher, come together in this book on a controversial environmental agenda. Using interview material, they bring together women's perspectives from North and South.

Ecofeminism

This now classic book traces the social origins of the sexual division of labor. It gives a history of the related processes of colonization and "housewifization" and extends this analysis to the contemporary new international division of labor and the role that women have to play as the cheapest producers and consumers. First published in 1986, it was hailed as a major paradigm shift for feminist theory. Eleven years on, Maria Mies' theory of capitalist patriarchy has become even more relevant; this new edition includes a substantial new introduction in which she both applies her theory to the new globalized world and answers her critics.

Women in the International Division of Labour

Patriarchy and Accumulation On A World Scale

Two of Zed's best-known authors, one an economist, the other a physicist and philosopher, come together in this book on a controversial environmental agenda. Using interview material, they bring together women's perspectives from North and South on environmental deterioration and develop and new way of approaching this body of knowledge which is at once practical and philosophical. Do women involved in environmental movements see a link between patriarchy and ecological degradation? What are the links between global militarism and the destruction of nature? In exploring such questions, the authors criticize prevailing theories and develop an intellectually rigorous ecofeminist perspective rooted in the needs of everyday life. They argue for the acceptance of limits, the rejection of the commoditization of needs, and a commitment to a new ethics.

Ekofeminizm

Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen

Claudia von Werlhof

The Last Colony

Women

This is a sensitive and ground-breaking study of women at the beginning of the process of globalisation. Maria Mies in this book, first published in 1982, looks at the way in which women are dispossessed by producing luxury goods for the Western market and simultaneously not counted as workers or producers in their fragmented workplaces. Instead they are defined as non-working housewives and their work as leisure-time activity. The rates of pay are far below acceptable levels resulting in accelerating pauperisation and a rapid deterioration in their position in Indian society. Before the latest economic boom in India were a number of processes of dispossession. The dispossession of farmers through the green revolution and alongside it, the dispossession of women, the lace makers of Narsapur in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Indian Housewives Produce for the World Market

The Lace Makers of Narsapur

Patriarchat und Kapital

Kumari Jayawardena

Liberal and Socialist Strategies, 1789-1919

Feminism in Europe

Indian Women and Patriarchy

First published in Germany in 1997 as 'Eine Kuh fur Hillary: Die Subsitenzperspective'. Provides an alternative to the current global free market industrial system, by calling for a new economics and politics based on a subsistence perspective. Explains subsistence as empowerment based on people's strength and cooperation. Analyses recent feminist politics and argues that the fight for equality with men has failed to make an egaliltarian society. Includes case studies from Africa, Latin America and Europe, references and an index. Mies is professor of sociology at the Fachhochschule, Cologne. Bennholdt-Thomsen is director of the institute of the theory and praxis of subsistence, Bielefeld, Germany.

Beyond the Globalised Economy

The Subsistence Perspective

The Social Origins of the Sexual Division of Labour

Patriarcado y acumulación a escala mundial

A product of twenty years of analysis and activism, this unique book poses a radical alternative to the current free-market industrial system. A book of history, theory and polemic, the authors show how, if we are to survive, economies must become needs-based, environmentally sustainable, co-operative and local. They explain how the current capitalist systems is none of these things, is inherently unstable and is dependent on the exploitation of various marginalized groups, particularly women, and of the environment. They call instead for a new politics and economics based on subsistence and present examples of such a perspective in practice. They describe current peasant economies and show how they are not only alive and possible but necessary and sufficient - far from being a brutalizing way of life, it is seen to be an empowering form of work on something - agriculture - which is fundamental for a modern subsistence-oriented society. We see indigenous communities in Guatemala setting up their own village-based subsistence economies as a way of liberating themselves from colonial subjectification via wage labour. With examples from Africa, Latin America and Europe, the book shows how the subsistence principle can and does have a positive effect on market exchange - with exchange oriented towards the social good rather than profit. The book concludes with a call for a new politics based on the view from below, rather than one concerned with power and dominance. The authors' subsistence perspective poses a powerful alternative to the top-down ideology of development politics. The book as a whole brilliantly demonstrates how development only works when it is done from the bottom up.

Die Befreiung der Frauen, der Natur und unterdrückter Völer

Ökofeminismus

In retrospect, my life appears to me like a meandering river which started out as a small stream in the mountains of the volcanic Eifel. The stream eventually collected more waters, grew broader and broader, and branched out into a huge network that now encompasses the whole world. In this autobiography Maria Mies packs in seventy-seven years of life: from the small German village of her childhood, to the world of the Indian subcontinent. Sociologist and womens studies researcher, scholar, ecofeminist, and international activist against violence against women and exploitation through globalisation, Maria Mies is one of the worlds original thinkers. Her achievements include developing groundbreaking praxis and theory around the concept of "housewifisation", the violence of colonisation and profound writings about ecofeminism. She fights the Multilateral Agreement of Investment, she fights the General Agreement on Trade in Services, she fights against the patenting of life and tackles reproductive and genetic engineering as well as food security, but she never gives up hope that there is an alternative to present day injustice and exploitation; that "the good life" is possible. And Maria never forgets her origins: Despite all my travels around the world, I have never forgotten where I came from: from a peasant family in a small village. This not only helped me keep my feet on the ground, but also protected me from excessive romanticism and quixotic idealism. I know that the food doesnt come from the supermarket but from the soil.

Maria Mies

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