Abstract: Feminist approaches take the rationale of care as a normative guideline that offers an opportunity to deal with the numerous socio-ecological crises caused by e.g. the rationale of development and resource extractivism. Taking the accumulation of capital as a guiding principle does not have a neutral effect on the efforts to secure sustainable livelihoods. On the contrary, it promotes short-term economic and political partial interests that have a detrimental impact on the preservation of nature, destroying the livelihoods of the (poorer) population. Feminist approaches call for the capitalist economy to be restructured along the lines of the ethics of care. Care must be the guideline of an alternative economic understanding and of economic activities to serve (again) the interests of human development and to secure sustainable livelihoods. Such an economy must be guided by error tolerance and reversibility, acting thoughtfully, slowly, and anticipating long-term consequences of action and repercussions.

This media entry was a contribution to the special session "Beyond development and resource extractivism: Feminist perpectives" at the 4th International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig in 2014.