Eco? Logical! But who cares? An ethnographic study of social practices and gender in french ecovillages

Ecovillages as one form of intentional communities appear to offer socially and ecologically sound alternatives to a growth-oriented, non sustainable capitalist society. But do we also deal with a feminist alternative here, that takes into consideration gender relations especially with regard to the gendered distribution of tasks and the feminized care work? Supposedly, the progressive and emancipatory label often associated with ecovillages makes them more likely to challenge power structures or even transcend gender biases. My research adopts an (eco)feminist lense in order to explore what we can learn from ecovillages in terms of feminist degrowth, reproductive labour, gender equality and care. Hence, this research conceptually draws on feminist political ecology and ecofeminist theories aiming to further advance the Intentional Community research agenda with regard to its sensitivity to gender and care. My research responds to questions such as: Which role does gender play in the community life? How is care work organised? Which importance is accorded to reproductive tasks and (Re)productivity? Or to put it in a nutshell: how feminist are ecovillages? The paper and presentation offer an ethnographic insight into three french ecovillages and their respective daily  practices. Theoretically, a social practice approach (Shove et al. 2012) is drawn upon in order to study the materialities, the images and the competencies which constitute practices of cooking, cleaning, child-rasing, and food supply in eco-communities. The field work was conducted in three small-scale eco-communites in France where I spent 27 days getting immersed in workshops, gardening, plenary sessions, birthdays and open house days. The qualitative research is based upon participant observation collected via field notes and 10 semi-structured and narrative interviews with 15 persons. The research identifies the collectivization of tasks, community spaces, co-parenting, collective care and non violent communication as opportunities to a feminist practice of degrowth. However, a depoliticisation of gender roles, essentialism and privileges constiute major challenges to defeminize, redistribute, valorise and reorganise care in ecovillages.