In February 2022, POMEPS convened a virtual workshop bringing together interdisciplinary contributions from anthropology, public health, political science, history, and human geography. Their geographic scope includes Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, Kuwait, and other Gulf countries. The papers grapple with the complexity and diversity of environmental politics and issues across the Middle East. In doing so, they contribute to important trends that have emerged in international and comparative environmental politics more broadly. Many of the papers highlight the importance of field-based research in producing insightful analyses, and all raise important and innovative questions that should inform future research in this area.
Introduction: Environmental Politics in the Middle East and North Africa
Jeannie Sowers & Marc Lynch
Soil, Dirt, Earth: Deserts, Rural Communities, and Power in Jordan
Taraf Abu Hamdan
Living with a Future Submergence: Dams, Temporality and Sacrifice in Northeastern Turkey
Ekin Kurtiç
What Displacement Teaches us about Surviving Changed Climates
Kali Rubaii
Climate, The Environment and Health of Migrant Workers: Lessons from Kuwait
Barrak Alahmad
Arab Climate Urbanism: An Ecological Fix?
Deen Sharp
Tobias Zumbrägel
Words, Water, and Waste: How Government Discourse Shapes Environmental Protest in Lebanon and Jordan
Jérémie Langlois & Marwa Daoudy
Lauren M. Baker
Environmentalism without Environmentalists? Climate Change and the State in Turkey
Murat Arsel & Fikret Adaman
Khaoula Bengezi