Money is the most ubiquitous institution on the planet. It gave rise to literacy, mathematics, sedentary community, and the concept of universal value. Against this backdrop, however, hardly anyone understands what money is. Orthodox monetary theory conceives of money as a neutral commodity that facilitates barter. Presupposing this theory is a dualistic and atomistic ontology in which reality is organized into hierarchically ordered opposites of superiority and inferiority and complex interactions are reduced to summations of their attendant parts. Accordingly, monetary policy is enacted as though money were any other commodity, subject to the barter dynamics of supply and demand. In this manner, the vast majority of money in modern economies is created by commercial banks in pursuit of profit maximization. An interdisciplinary literature conceives of money as a social relation of credits and debts denominated in a unit of account. Such an approach complicates and undermines the assumptions of economic theory and allows for a more effective approach to the problems attendant to modern money. This dissertation draws upon this literature to develop an Ecological Monetary Theory (EMT) that is simultaneously rooted in a social understanding of money, and an ontology of embeddedness. The first chapter draws upon ecofeminist theory to explore the ontological presuppositions of neoclassical economic theory and the monetary theory it informs. It argues that the dualism and atomism central to Western philosophy manifest as the misleading conceptualization that money is a commodity that facilitates barter. It then explores an interdisciplinary literature to argue that barter has never existed as an economic mode and money’s nature lies rather in the unit of account. It then argues that ecological economics must develop a theory of money of its own in order to avoid importing the dualistic ontology at the heart of orthodox monetary theory. The second chapter develops an ecological monetary theory. It does this by using an interdisciplinary literature to answer three closely-related questions: What is money? How does money get its value? How does money get into society? It then develops an ontology of embededdness by exploring the ontological presuppositions of ecological economics and ecofeminism. Then it develops a two-tiered theory in which money’s abstract social nature is mediated against its tangible biophysical claim through this ontology of embeddedness in order to address the contradiction at the heart of both social and material conceptions of money. The third chapter uses ecological monetary theory to test the desirability of a public banking proposal. In such a proposal, the prerogative of money creation is taken from the commercial banking sector and given solely to the State. This returns seigniorage to the public and allows the government to create money for social and ecological purpose, destroying money through taxation in order to maintain the money’s value. This chapter determines that, given certain parameters, public banking is a desirable alternative to the current monetary system.

In recent years, a new poetry genre has emerged, currently known as Instapoetry, and its chief practitioners are often young females (Pâquet 2019). Instapoetry has many characteristics influenced by the nature of the Instagram platform on which it is published, such as its brevity and its inclusion of visual effects with the text. However, its resemblance and links to older forms of modernist and post-modernist poetry are undeniable; such as its use of symbolism, expressionism, its move away from tradition, and its sense of activism. The “retrofitting” (Chasar 2020) of modernist poetic themes and formats for a digital medium opens up new possibilities for new ways of thinking. I suggest that this new format which can be seen as restrictive, allows for an opening and for new modes of subjectivity. Instapoetry engages feelings and ideas through an inclusive approach and that is essentially what gives it its potential as an activist and educational facility. Through its penchant for activism, Instapoetry engages in a metamodernist global consciousness shift, which Luke Turner defines as a move away beyond postmodernism and an “emergence of a palpable collective desire for change” (Turner 2015).  Female Instapoets often employ nature motifs in their Instapoetry, however, the nature motif is portrayed as something that connects, contrary to the restrictive sense often applied by patriarchal systems. In order to break away from a simplistic reading of Instapoetry as a poetic genre completely closed in by algorithms and word limits and to show the openings that this poetic genre allows, I suggest a new name “Digital Media Ecofeminist Poetry.” I attempt a qualitative methodology, through close reading of various Instapoems by female Instapoets, to demonstrate their nuanced use of form, language, and visuality and I examine the ways in which the digital medium influences this new form of poetry.

This study examines two EU-funded sustainability projects within the Swedish transport sector. The projects are initiated by the County Administrative Board of Gotland and the County Administrative Board of Västmanland. The purpose of the study is to investigate which “problems” that are represented within the projects, what kind of change these particular interpretations of the problem bring about, and, how this could be understood from a feminist perspective. Through analysis of project documents and interviews, the study investigates how the concept of gender equality is understood and implemented in these projects. The analysis is based on five analytical questions inspired by Carol L. Bacchi’s approach “What´s the Problem Represented to be”. The study answers the following research questions; how is the connection between gender, gender equality and sustainability understood in the projects? What obstacles and opportunities for sustainable gender equality work is expressed through people on leading positions within the projects? And; how can this be interpreted from an ecofeminist perspective? The study shows that sustainability and gender equality are linked within the projects through a focus on gender and accessibility. In summary, there are three dominant problem representations. These problem representations are; Gendered climate impact, gendered transport habits and behaviors, The lack of female professional drivers and Gendered jargons and attitudes within the organizations. The study shows that the problem representations form a basis for measures that emphasize that, for the most part, women as a group are expected to be the ones responsible for the change. The concluding discussion illuminates some of the alternative problems and possible changes that these particular problem representations obscure. The awareness of the effects of these problem representations within the transport sector opens up to broaden the societal and scientific conversations on the matter.

This essay argues that the depiction of women in Seamus Heaney’s poems “Bog Queen” and “Punishment” results from the male gaze in three ways: the narrative viewpoint, stereotypical characterization, and the objectification of the female body. The following essay analyses the poems through an ecofeminist perspective that enables examination of the female characters as personifications of nature – “Bog Queen” as Mother Earth and the victim of “Punishment” as Nerthus, the fertility goddess. The analysis explores three areas; historical context, ‘The Feminine Principle,’ and Nussbaum’s list of ‘Feminist Perspectives on Objectification’ to answer how the male gaze is present in the three aspects. The male gaze is argued to be attributed to an androcentric narrative that presents a man and country’s sense of revenge, stereotypes that are totems of the male fantasy, and dehumanizing sexual objectification that enables appreciation of the dead bodies of women.

The purpose of this qualitative, purposeful, bounded case study was to explore the influences that promoted and restricted three women early childhood educators' inclusion of open-ended outdoor learning in a Head Start center. A continued degradation of nature, along with the predominance of women working in the early childhood workforce, led me to the use of the ecofeminist theory for this study. Research methodology included participant interviews, observations, and a study of the site's documents. In the analysis of the data, four themes were identified as promoting or restricting open-ended outdoor learning. These themes included: (a) participant's attitudes, (b) Head Start program requirements, (c) classroom and playground context, and (d) student behavior. Each of the themes included codes that were categorized as promoting or restricting open-ended outdoor learning. Some fell into both categories. Through the use of the ecofeminist lens, a view of the dualistic relationships between (a) teachers and the Head Start program and (b) teachers and their students were identified. These dualisms were found to support the "logic of domination" in which social structures were created to justify the domination of one group over another. These structures have historically been identified as patriarchal and were present at the research site. Children's culture and nature's intrinsic values were considered less valuable than adults' expectations for school readiness. This study provides a view of an ecofeminist early childhood analysis in which limited research is currently available. Further work in this field would aid in the understanding of the dualistic model and its presence in early childhood outdoor learning environments.

This essay examines hierarchical structures in two versions of Jules Vernes’ Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870). A full translation by Erik Carlquist is compared with a retelling of the story by Peter Gotthardt (2010), and the comparison is intended to show similarities and differences in the hierarchical structures that can be found in the two versions. The essay uses an ecofeminist perspective to locate and analyse the hierarchies, and a postcolonial view is also present to deepen the analysis of the imperialistic aspects that can be found in the novel. The essay examines the relationship between human and nature, civilisation and the primitive and also between four characters in the novels. The essay shows that the hierarchical structures that can be found in the full translation can still be observed in the retelling, even though the retelling is around 300 pages shorter. In both versions, humans are dominant in its relation to nature, and the imperialistic tendencies maintain a hierarchical relationship between civilisation and the primitive, with the nationalistic features and the Western identity further establishing the civilisation as dominant. The hierarchical structures between the characters mainly stay the same between the two versions, although attempts to flatten out the hierarchical relationships can be seen in the retelling.

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This thesis aims to find ecofeminist perspectives in sustainability reporting standards using content analysis and comparison. The most used sustainability reporting framework is GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), but the EU has introduced a new one, the ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standard). The new framework will be mandatory for many European companies starting in 2024. For the scope of this master thesis, we focused on the social standards in ESRS and GRI. Our findings show that both standards include some ecofeminist perspectives. Key similarities are the emphasis on gender and workers, whereas key differences are the need to include different perspectives and the willingness to implement change together. The results show that ESRS includes more ecofeminist perspectives in the social reporting standards. The fact that ESRS is also a mandatory framework within the EU, whereas GRI is voluntary, pushes forward the notion and hope that ESRS will bring a more sustainable future to Europe.

In Murakami's Norwegian Wood, romance and coming-of-age confront the growing trend of postmodernity that leads to a discontinuity of life becoming more and more common in post-war Japan. As the narrator struggles through a monotonous daily existence, the text gives the reader access to the narrator's struggle for self- and societal identity. In the end, he finds his means of self-acceptance through escape, and his escape is a product of his attempts at negotiating the multiple settings or "scapes" in which he finds himself. The thesis follows the narrator through his navigation of these scapes and seeks to examine the different way that each of these scapes enables him to attempt to negotiate his role in an indifferent and increasingly consumerist society. The Introduction discusses my overview of the project, gives specifics about Murakami's life and critical reception and outlines my particular methodology. In the overview section, I address the cultural and societal tensions and changes that have occurred since the Second World War. Following this section, I provide a brief critical history of Murakami's texts, displaying not only his popularity, but also the multiple disagreements that arise over the Japanese-ness of his work. In my methodology section, I plot my eco-critical, eco-feminist, eco-psychological and deconstructive procedure for dissecting Murakami's text. The subsequent chapters perform a close reading of Murakami's text, outlining the different scapes and their attempts at establishing identity. Within these chapters, I have utilized subheadings as I felt they were needed to mark a change not on theme, but on character and emphasis. My conclusion reasserts my initial argument and further establishes the multiscapes as crucial negotiations, the price and product of which is self-identity.

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