The Good Ole’ Boy Extraction Club: An Eco-Feminist Critique of the Culture of Hydraulic Fracturing (original) (raw)
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While it has been acknowledged that the language used to describe natural resource extraction is highly gendered (Russell, 2013), the relationship between gender and natural resource extraction is under-researched, ‘undiscussed and silenced’ (Laplonge, 2013, p. 2). Similarly, there are increasing reports that the introduction of extraction industries results in an increase in sexualized violence in workers camps and host communities proximal to intensive industrial activity (Hotaling, 2013; James & Smith, 2014; Minor, 2014). In this brief commentary, we reflect on the relationship between gender, the environment, and violence, in particular in relation to psychological, social and ecological impacts of intensive natural resource extraction. We draw on examples from around the globe to highlight the importance of including ecofeminist approaches to psychological theorizing of sexual violence.
Getting Fracked: Gender Politics in Fracking Discourse
Signs, 2021
Hydraulic fracturing, commonly called “fracking,” refers to the technology used to extract natural gas primarily from shale bedrock. Most of the scholarly and media coverage of the practice, and the growing movement against it, depict fracking in terms of a contentious debate between pro- and antifracking advocates in which both sides claim that their position is supported by scientific evidence regarding whether fracking causes negative health outcomes, environmental degradation, seismic activity, and water contamination. Less attention, however, has been given to the feminist and gender implications of that debate. This critical discourse analysis examines the role that gender has played in the debates surrounding fracking by analyzing qualitative interviews, industry-sponsored articles, and news reports. Examining a series of moments in which gender has appeared in the public discourse about fracking, it argues that the fracking debate is framed through a gender perspective in ways that have produced knowledge about the nature of science, objectivity, and gender itself.
FRACKING WOMEN: A FEMINIST CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF HYDRAULIC FRACTURING IN PENNSYLVANIA
International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics
Hydraulic fracturing (" fracking "), a method of accessing natural gas, is viewed by many as a way to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, stimulate the U.S. economy, and address climate change. However, opponents of fracking argue that it is linked to health problems because it releases specific toxins that contaminate the air and ground water. In this essay, I offer a focused analysis of twenty qualitative interviews with women who live in Pennsylvania near fracking sites. The findings indicate that exposure to fracking has negative impacts on women's health by increasing their exposure to contaminated water and provokes gendered attacks on activism. Keywords: health and environmental advocacy, health impacts of fracking, polluted water and gender politics, hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania, environmental politics and gender
Research on energy development is largely gender neutral, creating a need to illuminate how gender structures life in contemporary energy boomtowns. This study demonstrates how gender and the local economy are intertwined to perpetuate a capitalist patriarchy, which structures life for residents in these communities. The purpose of this article is to show that this economic-gender structure creates tensions between those men and women whose gender performances reinforce hegemony and those who perform gender in direct opposition to resource extraction. I argue that men and women unconstrained by the capitalist patriarchy are better able to challenge its dominance than residents employed in the local economy. I use qualitative interviews (N 5 39) with community residents and observations of community events in northeastern Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale region as the primary methods of data collection. This study complements previous research by demonstrating the relationship between masculinity and femininity, showing the variability of gender in natural-resource-based settings and defining the hierarchal relationship among masculinities and femininities during periods of rapid energy development.
This article reviews recent literature relevant to the ongoing shale gas boom and introduces the Journal of Political Ecology's Special Section on hydraulic fracking. We highlight the need for ethnographic studies of the tumultuous social and physical transformations resulting from, and produced by, an unfolding frontier of energy production that unsettles social, economic, and ecological landscapes. We examine how intercommunity connections are vital to recognizing the shared structural conditions produced by the oil and gas industry's expansion, through examining the roles played by the oil field services industry, the sequestration of information and agnotology (the deliberate production of ignorance), divide and conquer tactics, and shared experiences of risk and embodied effects. Summarizing the contributions of the five articles included in the Special Section, we offer recommendations for further inquiry. We examine how social science studies of hydraulic fracking are producing new and innovative methodologies for developing participatory academic and community research projects. Cet article est une revue de la littérature récente pertinente sur le boom du gaz de schiste, pour cette section spéciale dans le Journal of Political Ecology sur la fracturation hydraulique. Nous soulignons la nécessité d'études ethnographiques des transformations sociales et physiques résultant d'une déroulement de la production d'énergie qui déstabilise les paysages sociaux, économiques et écologiques. Nous examinons comment c'est essentiel a reconnaître les similitudes structurelles existent entre les différentes communautés par l'expansion de l'industrie du pétrole et du gaz. Conclusions importantes concerne les rôles joués par le secteur des services de champ pétrolier, la séquestration de l'information et agnotology (la production délibérée de l'ignorance), les tactiques de diviser et conquérir, et les expériences partagées de risques et effets intrinsèques. Résumant les contributions des cinq articles inclus dans la section spéciale, nous concluons avec des recommandations pour des enquêtes plus approfondie. Enfin, nous examinons comment les études en sciences sociales de la fracturation hydraulique produisent de nouvelles méthodes pour le développement de projets de recherche universitaires et communautaires participatives. Este artículo revisa la literatura reciente en curso y relevante al auge del "gas de esquisto" para esta sección especial sobre fractura hidráulica del Journal of Political Ecology. Destacamos la necesidad de estudios etnográficos acerca de las transformaciones tumultuosas sociales y físicas resultantes de y producidas por el despliegue de la producción energética que perturba los paisajes sociales, económicos y ecológicos. Examinamos como las conexiones entre las comunidades son vitales para el reconocimiento de las condiciones estructurales compartidas y producidas por la expansión de la industria del petróleo y gas, esto mediante la exanimación de las funciones desempeñadas por las industrias de servicios petroleros, el posicionamiento ilícito de información y la agnotología (producción deliberada de ignorancia), técnicas de división y conquista, al igual que experiencias compartidas de riesgo y efectos incorporados. Resumiendo las contribuciones de los cinco artículos incluidos en la sección especial ofrecemos recomendaciones para consultas posteriores. Examinamos como los estudios de ciencias sociales sobre fractura hidráulica están produciendo nuevas e innovadoras metodologías para el desarrollo de proyectos de investigación académicos y proyectos comunitarios participativos.
Much of the analysis of hydraulic fracking by the social sciences pictures a discussion of opposing values. This paper seeks to use a multi-disciplinary approach (critical ethnography, philosophy, and cultural studies) to describe how hydraulic fracking can be viewed as a singular event-object of hegemonic dominance over different life-worlds. Through looking at how the frack acts physically, socially, and cognitively we see characteristics of refusal, occlusion, and disempowerment as intrinsic mechanisms belonging to the fracking object.