Iwona Janicka

Ecofeminist Grand Narratives: Cohabitability with More-than-Human Worlds

Author: Iwona Janicka
Global Environment. A Journal of Transdisciplinary History 19.2 (2026): 317–336

DOI: 10.3828/whpge.63881453971820

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Abstract:

Small-scale narratives, whether scientific, literary or artistic, are the vehicle for much, if not most, of our contemporary philosophical reflection on climate change. Such stories are essential in allowing us to think through, and within, our circumstances. Yet they often struggle to articulate, let alone to answer, the bigger questions at stake: how to redraw our ontological maps to make the world more habitable for humans and nonhumans alike? How to enact collective political action to create a life-affirming future on our planet? This article makes two, somewhat provocative, claims. Firstly, that the reclamation of grand narratives is vital to produce viable ecological futures, despite metanarratives’ bad reputation. Secondly, that such reclamation has already begun to take place, albeit tacitly, within ecofeminism. This paper sketches the key concepts and parameters of the ecological grand narratives emerging in contemporary ecofeminist thought. So doing, it demonstrates how ecofeminists allow us to rethink our position of being human on the planet and conceive of a more-than-human cohabitability on the grandest – and most effective – scale.

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