Is Dismissing the Precautionary Principle the Manly Thing to Do? Gender and the Economics of Climate Change
Julie Nelson
No 12-04, GDAE Working Papers from GDAE, Tufts University
Abstract:
Many public debates about climate change now focus on the economic "costs" of taking action. When called on to advise about these, many leading mainstream economists downplay the need for care and caution on climate issues, forecasting a future with infinitely continued economic growth. This essay highlights the roles of binary metaphors and cultural archetypes in creating the highly gendered, sexist, and age-ist attitudes that underlie this dominant advice. Gung-ho economic growth advocates aspire to the role of The Hero, rejecting the conservatism of The Old Wife. But in a world that is not actually as safe and predictable as they assume, the result is guidance from The Fool. Both intellectual and cultural change are necessary if the voice of The Wise Grandmother (which may come through women or men) is to—alongside The Hero—receive the attention it deserves.
Date: 2012-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-ene, nep-env and nep-hpe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.bu.edu/eci/files/2020/01/12-04NelsonPrecautionManly.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden (http://www.bu.edu/eci/files/2020/01/12-04NelsonPrecautionManly.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.bu.edu/eci/files/2020/01/12-04NelsonPrecautionManly.pdf)
Related works:
Working Paper: Is Dismissing the Precautionary Principle the Manly Thing to Do? Gender and the Economics of Climate Change (2012) 
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dae:daepap:12-04
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in GDAE Working Papers from GDAE, Tufts University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Abdulshaheed Alqunber ().