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DOI: https://doi.org/10.21714/2177-2576EnANPAD2023

Anthropocene and Feminism: a systematic mapping study

Autoria
Mariana Luísa da Costa Lage - mariana.lage@ufjf.br
- / UFJF - Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora

Resumo
This research aimed to provide a comprehensive map of the body of knowledge in
anthropocene literature with a feminist perspective. In this review, we presented findings of
a systematic mapping study based on papers extracted from Web of Science and Scopus. The
data analysis was performed using “bibliometrix”, a new R-tool. We analyzed the
descriptive bibliometric analysis and the literature field's intellectual, social, and conceptual
structure. The analysis showed that the literature on anthropocene and feminism is emergent
and almost from Global North. Therefore, our investigation could contribute to the increase
of the scientific production on anthropocene and feminism and also solidify new
collaborations.
 XLVII Encontro da ANPAD - EnANPAD 2023
São Paulo - 26 - 28 de set de 2023 - 2177-2576 versão online

Anthropocene and Feminism: a systematic mapping study

Abstract

This research aimed to provide a comprehensive map of the body of knowledge in

anthropocene literature with a feminist perspective. In this review, we presented
findings of a systematic mapping study based on papers extracted from Web of
Science and Scopus. The data analysis was performed using “bibliometrix”, a new R-
tool. We analyzed the descriptive bibliometric analysis and the literature field's
intellectual, social, and conceptual structure. The analysis showed that the literature
on anthropocene and feminism is emergent and almost from Global North. Therefore,
our investigation could contribute to the increase of the scientific production on
anthropocene and feminism and also solidify new collaborations.

Keywords: anthropocene; feminism; systematic mapping study; bibliometrics.

Introduction

The anthropocene emerged as a term of geological periodization that we are

living in now, when, for the first time, we connect events that happen in geological
scales with the everyday lives of society, including individuals, collectivities,
institutions, and nations (Chakrabarty, 2018). However, since the concept of the
anthropocene was first proposed in 2000, some different narratives have held multiple
interpretations about what it represents for society (Bonneuil, 2015; Chakrabarty,
2018).
Some bibliometric studies were made previously with the anthropocene. For
example, Brondizio et al. (2016) conducted research between 2000-2016, and
Alcântara et al. (2021) between 1945-2020, both on the Web of Science database. In
these cases, the authors identified a mainstream naturalist narrative of the
anthropocene. However, considering that it is crucial to detect topics and trends in the
state of knowledge, few studies on anthroponece with a feminist perspective have
been performed. Therefore, this research aims to provide a comprehensive map of the
body of knowledge in anthropocene literature with a feminist perspective.
The science mapping analysis looks to understand the dynamics of scientific
investigation in a given field (Zupic & Čater, 2015). We used bibliometrix, a R-tool, to
import and perform analysis from bibliographic databases (Aria & Cuccurullo, 2017).
Finally, the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the systematic mapping
process, and the method used to conduct the mapping study. Section 3 sets out the results of

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the mapping and presents the discussion. Finally, Section 4 provides the conclusions,
proposes future work, and highlights the study's limitations.

Methodology
The Bibliometrics method has introduced a systematic, transparent, and reproducible
review process based on the statistical measurement of science, scientists, or scientific activity
(Aria & Cuccurullo, 2017). Also, the systematic mapping study helps provide an overview of a
research area (Mayeda & Andrews, 2021)
Zupic and Čater (2015) recommended a workflow for conducting science mapping
studies with bibliometric methods with five steps. First is the research design, when you
develop the research question and choose the appropriate method. Second, is the compilation
of bibliometric data, which concerns selecting or constructing the appropriate database and
filtering and exporting the bibliographic data. Third is the analysis when choosing the
appropriate software, cleaning the data, and identifying subgroups with the chosen method.
Fourth, the visualization, when you choose the preferred visualization method and select the
appropriate software to implement visualization. Finally, researchers do the interpretation,
describing and interpreting of the findings.
First, we opted to use the Bibliometrix package, which provides a set of tools for
quantitative research in bibliometrics and scientometrics, and biblioshine is a web interface for
Bibliometrix (Aria & Cuccurullo, 2017). Also, Bibliometrix is reviewed and improved by
knowledge researchers since it is written in R, an open-source language (Aria & Cuccurullo,
2023; Derviş, 2020). In this phase, we used this software and codes to perform a descriptive
bibliometric analysis and used the biblioshiny to create maps networks.
After the study design phase, we went to database creation. In Web of Science and
Scopus, we filtered documents writing (anthropocene AND (feminism OR feminist)) by using
Boolean operators to combine words and expressions in this search. Following Secinaro et al.
(2020), we considered only peer-reviewed scientific articles since they became published after
a peer review and presupposed more reliable scientific ones. Also, we decided to keep the
research duration and languages open, given that the research addresses an undeveloped
topic. As a result, we found 108 observations from Scopus and 127 from Web of Science until
April 10, 2023.
Echchakoui (2020) highlighted the importance of merging two databases to conduct
more reliable bibliometric analyses. Many researchers conduct single analyses with WoS or
Scopus separately. To merge WOS and Scopus for bibliometric analysis, we were inspired by
the four-step procedure created by Echchakoui (2020). The first step is to convert WOS and
Scopus databases to bibliography files. In this sense, we adequately exported WOS and
Scopus references to BibTex format (e.g., WOS.bib and Scopus.bib). Second, we use the

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Bibliometrix package to upload the raw format to transform the Excel format. It is possible by
biblioshiny web version. This path allows the creation of a pattern of terms and tag fields since
the platforms use different mechanisms for organizing the exported database. After that, we
imported the dataset to R, merged it using mergeDbSources function, and removed duplicates.
In this case, 79 documents were removed by R. Finally, we exported the final version of the
database in Excel format and checked duplicates manually, excluding more than six
documents. With the final database version, we analyze the biblioshiny package in Rstudio,
totaling 150 papers.
For the scientometrics analysis, we need to describe the network creation for co-
citation, collaboration, co-occurrence analyses, and thematic mapping methodologically. For
this first, bibliometrix creates a rectangular matrix connecting documents and attributes
(information associated with the document, e.g., authors, keywords, etc.) (Aria & Cuccurullo,
2017). For the second, considering the thematic analysis, bibliometrix performs multiple
correspondence analyses to draw a conceptual structure and k-means clustering to identify
groups of papers that express common concepts (Aria & Cuccurullo, 2017). Also, it uses two
perpendiculars graphic schemes on a Cartesian axis with Callon density (focus on the internal
strength of the network) in the ordinate and Callon centrality in the abscissa (focus on the
degree of interaction of a network with other networks) (Aria, Alterisio, Scandurra, Pinelli, &
D’Aniello, 2021).

Bibliometric analysis and discussion

The bibliometric analysis involved four steps in being present in the following section:
(1) Descriptive bibliometric analysis; and the structure knowledge: (2) Intellectual structure; (3)
Social structure; (4) Conceptual structure.
Descriptive bibliometric analysis
Table 1 shows the information on 150 papers published between 2011 and 2023, which
includes 146 published and four as early access. From this primary information, most papers
have been written by a single author (92) and published by different sources (125). Also, in the
past four years (Fig.1), we can see a significant increase in published articles.

Table 1 – Descriptive statistics of the database

Description Results
Main Information
Timespan 2011:2023
Sources (Journals, Books, etc.) 125
Documents 150
Annual Growth Rate % 0
Document Average Age 3,42
Average citations per doc 11,31
References 8107

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Document types
article 146
article; early access 4
Document content
Keywords Plus (ID) 191
Author's Keywords (DE) 596
Authors
Authors 214
Authors of single-authored docs 92
Author’s collaboration
Single-authored docs 99
Co-Authors per Doc 1,57
International co-authorships % 4,667
Source: authors

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20

Figure 1. The annual number of articles obtained from the database

Source: authors

Another essential piece of information is the most cited documents and references. Aria
and Cuccurullo (2017) highlighted the difference between them. On the one hand, the most
global cited documents represent the total citations the article included in the collection has
received from documents indexed on the Web of Science and Scopus database. So, global
citations measure the impact of a document on the whole bibliographic database. On the other
hand, in the most cited references, the Bibliometrix counts the citations that a reference has
received from documents included in the collection. Then, local citations measure the impact
of a document in the analyzed collection (Aria & Cuccurullo, 2017, 2023). From Table 2, we
can identify that the references from the database analyzed are singular when joining
anthropocene and feminism. Notwithstanding, Haraway (2016), for example, was present in
only 10% of the papers from the dataset, which means that there is a wide variety of references
being used by researchers.

Table 2 – Most cited documents and references

Document Title Citations Journal/Book
Most global cited documents

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A theoretical Framework for the Critical Theory, Culture &

Brasidotti, R. (2019)
Gibson-Graham, J.K. (2011)
Taylor, A.; Pacini-Ketchabaw, V.
(2015)
Tsing, A.L.; Mathews, A.;
Bubandt, N. (2019)
Yusoff, K. (2016)
Most local cited references
Haraway, D. (2016)
Haraway, D. (2015)
Chakrabarty, D. (2009)
Haraway, D. (2008)
Tsing, A. (2015)
Source: authors
273
Posthumanities Society
A feminist project of belonging for the Gender, Place and
162
Anthropocene Culture
Learning with children, ants, and worms
in the Anthropocene: towards a Pedagogy, Culture &
145
common world pedagogy of Society
multispecies vulnerability
Patchy Anthropocene: Landscape
Structure, Multispecies History, and the
91 Current Anthropology
Retooling of Anthropology: An
Introduction to Supplement 20
Anthropogenesis: Origins and Endings Theory, Culture &
81
in the Anthropocene Society
Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in
15 Book
the Chthulucene
Anthropocene, Capitalocene,
Environmental
Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making 12
Humanities
Kin
The Climate of History: Four Theses 8 Critical Inquiry
When Species Meet 8 Book
Mushroom at the end of the World: on
the possibility of the life in capitalist 8 Book
ruins

Finally, the greatest keyword frequency and occurrences (Fig2). Most frequent words:
anthropocene (28), feminism (17). Others: philosophy (6), climate change, politics, and science
(5 each).

Figure 2. Wordcloud of anthropocene and feminism keywords

Source: authors

Intellectual Structure

The intellectual structure shows the relationship among bibliographic references cited
from a collection of papers, bringing out the reference roots for a topic or area of interest. (Aria
& Cuccurullo, 2017). For example, looking at Figure 3, it is possible to identify that the most

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productive author are Gibson-Graham, Yusoff, and Waitt. Two of these, plus Braidotti, greatly
influence most globally cited documents. It probably means that these researchers produce
about the theme, are recognized for it, but use different documents to support their studies
(e.g., Haraway). Following the authors, the most productive institutions are located in the USA
and Australia, with other universities from the North Global. Talking about the most relevant
countries by the corresponding author, we found researchers from the USA (27), Australia
(19), and the UK (13). At least some from Global South: Brazil and India (4, each one).

GIBSON-GRAHAM J
YUSOFF K
WAITT G
HAMILTON J
BRAIDOTTI R
DILLARD-WRIGHT J
DESAI B
CHUANG C
BUBANDT N
ARVIDSSON M

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

UNIV VERMONT
WESTERN SYDNEY…
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
UNIV UTRECHT
UNIV NEW ENGLAND
UNIV GOTHENBURG
SOOCHOW UNIV
UCL INST ARCHEOL
PONTIFICIA UNIV CATOLICA…
CHARITE UNIV MED BERLIN
0 1 2 3 4 5 6

GENDER, PLACE AND…

AUSTRALIAN FEMINIST…
GENDER, WORK AND…
FEMINIST THEORY
FEMINIST REVIEW
ENVIRONMENTAL…
ENVIRONMENT AND…
CHUNG WAI LITERARY…
AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF…
AUSTRALIAN FEMINIST…
0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Figure 3. The most productive authors (a), the most productive institutions (b), and the most
relevant sources (c)
Source: authors

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Finally, we considered the most relevant sources. As shown in Figure 3, most of the
articles were published in journals focused on gender and feminism. This condition may be
significant due to the prior opening of the discussion, but it may also prove to be an
insularization of the debate in just one space and field of research.

Social Structure
The third step of this analysis is to focus on the social structure or the scientific
collaboration. It was used to identify the key players, a particular author or group of authors, in
a field through social network analysis (Aria et al., 2021; Aria & Cuccurullo, 2017). Thus, co-
author analysis identifies connected authors when they co-author the paper and presume to
be a measure of collaboration on the level of institutions and countries (Zupic & Čater, 2015).
Figure 4 illustrates that small pairs or groups of intellectuals work together in this field. Talking
about countries' collaboration, we find a north-north connection. USA with Canada, Denmark,
Germany, and Norway. Europe to Europe (Finland to Sweden and Germany and Italy). And
finally, Chile to Spain.

Figure 4. Collaboration network based on authors. A color represents each cluster, and the
node size represents the authors' productivity.
Source: authors

Co-citation is considered the most used and validated bibliometric method because it
filters the most important works (Zupic & Čater, 2015). First, talking about citations, the most
cited countries are the Netherlands (327), Australia (315), the USA (300), the UK (195), and
Canada (161). Segund, the co-citation network identified 48 nodes forming four clusters, as
shown in Figure 5. In this case, Haraway (2016) is an excellent connection for three clusters,
and other Haraway's works are present in the blue one.

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Figure 5. Co-citation network of Anthropocene and feminism research based on the

database
Source: authors

Although the co-citation analysis is essential, Zupic and Čater (2015) alerted us that
the publication process is time-consuming. In this sense, the co-citation image reflects the
state of the field sometime before, not in the present or future. Moreover, the intellectual
structure of AF research might change since research on AF is still relatively new (12 years)
with limited publications compared to other similar research fields.

Conceptual Structure
Finally, the science mapping with Bibliometrix also allows researchers to identify gaps
and overlaps in the literature (Aria & Cuccurullo, 2017). The co-word analysis, using the word
co-occurrences in a bibliographic collection, become possible to create a conceptual structure
of a field and represent themes or topics (Aria et al., 2021; Aria & Cuccurullo, 2023).
The co-occurrence network identified twenty-seven keywords grouped into three
clusters (Fig.6). First, the red one (13 keywords) has the terms: anthropocene, philosophy, and
politics. Second, the blue one (12 keywords): feminism, climate change, and Science. Third,
the green one (2 keywords): sustainability and climate change.

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Figure 6. Co-occurrence network

Source: authors

Additionally, the co-word network analysis performs a thematic evolution (Aria and
Cuccurullo, 2023). Centrality and density show the theme's importance and theme
improvement in the research area. The graphical representation of themes (Fig. 7) on the four
quadrants in which they are plotted allows the identification of the following proprieties: (1)
Motor themes; (2) Highly developed and isolated themes; (3) Emerging or declining themes,
and (4) Basic and transversal themes (Aria et al., 2021).

Figure 7. Thematic map by keywords

Source: authors

The first quadrant, the motor themes, is characterized by high centrality/high density,
meaning they are well developed and essential for structuring a research field. In this case,
the themes "philosophy, theoretical study, design method" and "gender, history". The second
quadrant, characterized by high density/low centrality, presents highly developed and isolated
themes, which means they are of little importance for the field since they do not share critical
external links with other themes. Here, "climate world" and "male, article, human" are not

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considered necessary themes. Also, the third quadrant shows emerging or declining themes.
In our study, "political economy" and "environmental politics, united states" are emerging
clusters moving to the up part of the quadrant. They have low centrality/low density, meaning
they are weakly developed and marginal. Nevertheless, in this case, this identification requires
a longitudinal analysis to find an emerging trend. Finally, the fourth quadrant, characterized by
high centrality/low density, described the basic and transversal themes. So, they are essential
concerning general topics that are transversal to different field research areas. In this case,
"anthropocece, feminism, climate change" are the cluster that is the most representative,
followed by "animalia, Australia, ethnography" and "sustainability, vulnerability".
Even though researchers recommend splitting by years into a longitudinal analysis, in
this case, we do not carry it out and found positive results because the period from 2011-2023
is really short.

Conclusion
This study aimed to provide a bibliometric analysis of the publications on anthroponece
with a feminist perspective. Although there is some literature on this subject, we observed that
the literature lacked a bibliometric analysis. Therefore, using systematic science mapping with
bibliometrix R-package, we investigated the trend of scientific publications on the subject and
the future directions.
Overall, this bibliometric analysis pointed out that the feminism or feminist perspective
of the anthropocene is emergent, and few papers are publicated. Additionally, we found
concentrated publications produced by Global North institutions. Further analysis could also
identify variables that affect the presence or absence of this debate, fleshing out why some
parts of the world did not conduct studies on this area or did not have support to publish in top
journals and researchers from South Global.
This study has limitations common to systematic studies, such as the strategy of
selecting only papers as a document. Future research should extend document types to
include books, research notes, and theses. Also, a deep paper analysis could help researchers
to understand which narrative of the antropocene is presented in the database, contributing to
new studies in the field.

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