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Unstable Climate in Unstable Land: Kurdish Environmentalists Facing Climate Catastrophe
Abstract by Ms. Dobroslawa Wiktor-Mach
Coauthors: Marcin Skupinski
On Session VII-20  (Environment, Climate Change, and Urban Planning)

On Saturday, December 3 at 8:30 am

2022 Annual Meeting

Abstract
Across the Middle East, environmental mobilization has intensified in the recent decade reflecting the vulnerability of the region in regard to climate change and environmental degradation on the one hand, and the dynamics of structural factors and social activism on the other.The presentation intends to shed light on the key finding of the ongoing research project on the dynamics of environmental movement in the Middle East, focusing on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq where social mobilization around some nature-related issues is on the rise along with a significant involvement of the younger generation. The materials from Iraqi Kurdistan will be compared with data gathered in the same framework in Kurdish inhabited areas of Turkey. It will focus on the discourses and practices of local activists to environmental challenges and, in particular, to water crisis, pollution as well as to deforestation problems. Based upon the fieldwork and qualitative data, it will present the landscape of social mobilization and the response of various groups, NGOs, and networks of individuals to the transformation of nature and to multiple environmental crises highlighting different strategies adopted by the activists depending on available resources, political situation and intended goals of their movements. Utilizing the conceptual tools from the social movement scholarship, this project utilizes, among others, the approaches which underline the role of agency, social practices and people’s imaginaries in the complex process of social change. The analysis of framing the activists use and their practices suggests a diversity of discourses and the interrelatedness of environmental and other socio-cultural and political issues. We argue that this environmental movement can, at least partially, be interpreted through decolonial and transnational perspectives and do not easily fit into common representations of environmental movements outside the global North.
Discipline
Sociology
Geographic Area
Iraq
Kurdistan
Turkey
Sub Area
None