Blackwell Reference Online

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Vandana Shiva was born November 5, 1952 in the Himalayan forests of India. She is a worldrenowned environmental thinker and activist known for her third world feminist critique of capitalism and science and her vision of a community-based democratic politics that promotes ecological and cultural diversity. In 1993, Shiva was the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (known as the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize). Her most influential works include Staying Alive, Ecofeminism (with Maria Mies), Monocultures of the Mind, Biopiracy , and Earth Democracy . Among the fields where Shiva has contributed intellectually and through activist campaigns are intellectual property rights, ecological and biodiversity, biotechnology, bioethics, water conservation, and participatory or “earth” democracy. She has assisted grassroots organizations on five continents and is a longtime member of the International Forum on Globalization. Shiva was born and educated in the valley of Dehradun, to a father who was the conservator of forests and a mother who was a farmer. Largely influenced by the figure of Albert Einstein as a young girl, Shiva decided to pursue an education in physics at the University of Western Ontario. During this time she became uneasy with physicists' role in state-managed nuclear energy and weapons, largely due to the concerns of her physician sister and because of the intensely ... log in or subscribe to read full text