Call for Papers
Thematic Focus: Dynamics of Ecological Awareness in the Middle East and Maghreb
Editors: Anahita Grisoni and Marjan Mashkour
Submission Deadline: September 1, 2018
Forthcoming: Volume 14, Issue 1 (forthcoming, summer 2019)
This special issue aims to document the attitude of Middle Eastern and Maghreb countries towards nature, environment and ecology. The geographical unity provides a framework suggesting an endogenous and specific relation to socio-ecological conditions in these areas. In fact, the region is characterised by eco-systemic, historical and political common elements: aridity and climatic instability, agro-pastoral practices and more or less common adaptations andways of life within sedentary or nomad populations. This is also the case for other modern social components, such as the long-term exploitation of non-renewable resources. In this respect, which social representations of nature, whether endogenous or imported, characterise the Middle East and Maghreb? What about the forms of individual and collective environmental awareness within this area? How are they embodied, in terms of practices and techniques, social movements and groups as well as public policies?
Through documenting practical cases and symbolic representations, policies and international strategies, this special issue aims to highlight the mechanisms of exploitation and domination towards natural environments and human groups, as well as those set up for protection and contestation. Conceived in the wider field of anthropology, this issue is open to other social sciences and to multidisciplinary contributions. Indeed, the goal is first to establish a state of knowledge for this part of the globe, undermined by continuous political changes and instabilities that dramatically impact and condition human-nature relationship. Beyond this regional approach, this special issue also aims at nourishing a reflection on environmental studies in a global perspective.
We invite articles, reports from the field and reviews (books, films, conferences and exhibitions) that deal with the above, and more.
Please send the title and possibly a short abstract of your article as soon as possible.
Deadline: September 1, 2018
Please e-mail submissions to one of the following:
Anahita Grisoni: anahitagrisoni@gmail.com
Marjan Mashkour: marjan.mashkour1@gmail.com
Birgit Pour Ramazan: birgit.pourramazan@gmx.net
Soheila Shahshahani: soheilairan@gmail.com