In feminist political ecological discourses, women are seen as potential initiators and actors in collective action. Gendered differential practices in sustaining certain forms of collective action within the community have remained under-researched. Women play a key role as providers of food, water, fuel and fodder. They have also gained access to alternative means of livelihood and formed groups to conserve forest resources. Women’s roles hold the potential to ensure their claim to inclusion in the development process. This article formulates a set of interrelated questions to interrogate the role of community of practice (CoP) as an analytical framework to understand informal community action led by rural women. These questions concern the significance of collective action in relation to social structures, institutions and processes. Communities practise different kinds of sustainable and shared methods of collective action; for example, women’s collectives or self-help groups continuously work to create sustainable forms of collective action. We argue that the CoP framework provides an opportunity to explore the integral social basis of collective action, which cannot be understood without acknowledging women as important agents in shaping community initiatives.

中文翻译：

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妇女集体和粮食和能源安全集体行动：实践社区 (CoP) 视角的反思

在女权主义政治生态话语中，女性被视为集体行动的潜在发起者和行动者。在维持社区内某些形式的集体行动方面的性别差异实践仍未得到充分研究。妇女作为食物、水、燃料和饲料的提供者发挥着关键作用。他们还获得了其他谋生手段，并组建了保护森林资源的团体。妇女的角色具有确保她们参与发展进程的潜力。本文提出了一组相互关联的问题，以探究实践社区 (CoP) 作为分析框架的作用，以了解由农村妇女领导的非正式社区行动。这些问题涉及与社会结构、制度和过程相关的集体行动的重要性。社区实践不同类型的可持续和共享的集体行动方法；例如，妇女集体或自助团体不断努力创造可持续的集体行动形式。我们认为，CoP 框架提供了一个探索集体行动不可或缺的社会基础的机会，如果不承认女性是塑造社区倡议的重要推动者，就无法理解这一点。