The first article edited by Francis O’Connor and Joost Jongerden for the special issue “Rural Protest and Contentious Politics: Land, Nature, and Infrastructure in Kurdistan” is now online. The article, titled “Environmental Politics in North and East Syria/Rojava: A Scoping and Conceptual Literature Review,” is written by Pinar Dinc, Maria Andrea Nardi, and Mo Hamza. It offers a scoping and conceptual review of English-language academic research on environmental politics in North and East Syria/Rojava, synthesizing scholarship on the relationship between armed conflict and environmental change in the region. The review focuses in particular on the Kurdish-led socio-political model of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
The study is guided by two main questions: what knowledge has been produced about the role of the environment in AANES politics, and what theoretical advances have emerged within environmental politics in relation to this case. Using a scoping and conceptual review methodology, the authors identify key themes including ecological sustainability, gender equality, and direct democracy. They highlight both the challenges and the opportunities AANES faces in pursuing ecological policies amid ongoing conflict and broader geopolitical pressures.
Overall, the findings underscore the value of interdisciplinary approaches and point to the need for further research on ecological democracy, environmental justice, and peace ecology. The review concludes by emphasizing the importance of radical democratic commitments and ecological consciousness for advancing peace and justice in conflict-affected settings.
Rural Sociology Wageningen University 