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abstractThis articleseeks to investigate the theoretical assumptions and practical application underlying the strategic objectives of the gender and environment platforms offered by the Beijing Platform for Action. Specific emphasis is placed on how these gender and environment strategic objectives have manifested in policy and procedure in the South African context, specifically in our 11 years of democracy and the greater fight for a country of equality and justice. In order for this articleto offer a critique of the Beijing Platform for Action, it begins by navigating a discussion of environmental and development discourses and how they related to gender equity. The articlethen goes on to interrogate the way in which the Beijing documentation is all premised on a paradigm of sustainable development. This is critiqued in the light of a more radical option: the possibility of an Earth Democracy.

abstractThis briefing argues for a conceptual encounter between contemporary feminisms and environmental green philosophies, calling for a paradigm shift in 21st century feminist thinking. The call for Earth Democracy (a term which this briefing will explore and define) is highlighted as one of the key agendas for contemporary activisms—be these feminist or environmental—for a post-millennium planet earth. This briefing argues that as 21st century feminists, our activisms should not only include fighting for gender, race and class (amongst other power issues) equity, but should also begin to include a commitment to re-imagine a planet where all life forms, human and non-human, find themselves protected against violence, destruction, annihilation, disease, abuse and mistreatment.

Justine Loots interviews Swami Karunananda, Hindu sannyasin, who serves at the Sivananda School of Yoga, Johannesburg

LLIANE LOOTS discusses how urban cultural practices from the North have been hegemonically sold to the South as superior. She discusses the paternal and often misogynistic messages contained in some forms of Northern hip-hop culture and argues that young artists can subvert these practices to challenge social racism and sexism

LLIANE LOOTS reviewsWomen and the Law in South Africa: Empowerment through Enlightenment andABC of Women's Rights in South Africa

Guest editor LLIANE LOOTS introduces the issue

The foregrounding of pornography in the new era of free expression has profoundly gendered consequences, writes LLIANE LOOTS, when constitutional rights also enshrine sexual equality and the right to dignity