Abstract Book of the 7th Global Conference on Women’s Studies
Year: 2025
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Reimagining Ecologies: Ecofeminist Becoming and Multispecies Worlding in Yunnan Urban-Rural Migration
Xiayi Li
ABSTRACT:
This study investigates the relationship between gender power dynamics and rural-urban environments in the context of counter-urbanization and “ecological civilization” initiatives in post-socialist China. Taking Dali as an ethnographic field site, this research examines how non human actors (animals, land, digital platforms) co-constitute ecofeminist subjectivity among urban women migrants (ruxians) in Yunnan through everyday ecological practices, and how this process generates friction with China’s Ecological Civilization governance. Adopting a Posthuman Ecofeminist Actor-Network (PEAN) framework, the study employs multispecies ethnography to trace: material subversion, algorithmic resistance, and intersectional contradictions. Findings reveal how ruxians weaponise “subversive ordinariness” to redistribute agency across species and technologies, exposing tensions between grassroots praxis and authoritarian environmentalism. The study advances ecofeminist theory by centring non-human agency in China’s sustainability transitions and offering policy insights for gender inclusive governance.
Keywords: Counter-urbanization; Ecofeminism; Eco-migration; Multispecies ethnography; Gendered Subjectivity