Introduction to Political Ecology

Case Studies from the Middle East

Lecturer: Dr Miri Lavi-Neeman
3 academic hours once a week,
3 credits, Undergraduate.

About the course:

Political ecology, generally defined, examines the politics, in the broadest sense of the word, of
the environment. Political Ecology rejects the view that environmental degradation can be
understood as a simple objective problem amenable to scientific and technical fixes—e.g.,
“there are just too many people,” or “we just need cleaner and more efficient production or
disposal technologies.” Instead, Political Ecologists emphasizes that there is ecology of politics
and a politics of ecology. The former refers to central role that natural resources—their
distribution, allocation, and extraction—play in shaping the nature of political and social
institutions within a society. Ecological conditions influence, the development of social
structures and institutions, by imposing challenges and opportunities for meeting basic needs.
Moreover, ecology is political. When there is scarcity, there are decisions which have to be
made over how things are doing to be allocated, who will receive and who will not. Besides the
distribution of resources and benefit streams, decisions are made over which groups in society
bear the burden of environmental degradation. Hierarchies, privilege, and power all come into
play, as social dynamics shape use patterns of natural resources, as well as fundamental
definitions of what constitutes environmental problems, which causes them, and what the
solutions should be.
As a theoretical tool-kit and set of empirical case-studies, the field of Political Ecology is
extremely broad and varied. This course traces some origins and current formulations of
political ecology as an approach to studying environmental change and the relations between
society and the environment in general; it also evaluates the power of political ecology to
explain and analyze historical and current conflicts and processes involving Israelis, Palestinians,
and others in the Middle East. Using a combination of case studies and theoretical works, we
will explore a range of environmental issues including: structures that mediate control over
land and property, forestation, settlement, water, parks and protected areas, and
environmental movements. We will follow case studies and research projects from the Middle
East, and in particular within Israel and the Palestine, but also from other parts of the world.

The goal would be first, to be able to use the framework --analytical tools and critical thinking
skills --of political ecology to analyze the complex relationships between ecological and social
change that underlie contemporary environmental problems around the globe; second, to

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evaluate and criticize other popular understandings of the environment, and thirdly, to gain a
unique and useful but overlooked perspective on Middle East politics, and on regional and local
ethnic and civic conflicts, and violence. We will sample key texts in political ecology literature
dealing with environmental change; political economy of resources, social movements, and
development; we will also evaluate academic and popular writings on the Middle East from a
political ecology perspective.

Course Requirements and Grading

 Seminar participation (20%): Attendance and participation in discussion during class
meetings will constitute a substantial portion of grade.
 Critical reading commentaries (30%): A second component of the course will be reading
responses on selected texts-- short reflections, two paragraphs (approx. 200-300 words
in length).
 Class Presentations (20%): A third component will be an individual/ group presentations.
 Final Paper (30%): a 600 words text in length.
 Critical thinking will be expected for all assignments and will be an important element of
grading assessment.

I. Readings and Probable Books:

Reading will be based on articles, newspapers and websites; in addition we will read significant
selected chapters from the following books:
Robbins, Paul (2011, 2005) Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction. 1st and 2nd Edition.
Wiley-Blackwell.
Davis and Burke (2011) Environmental Imaginaries of the Middle East and North Africa.
Ohio University Press.
Peet, R., P. Robbins, and M. Watts. (2011) . Global Political Ecology: Routledge.
Peluso, N. L., and M. Watts. 2001. Violent environments: Cornell University Press.
Orenstein, D., A. Tal, and C. Miller eds. (2013). Between ruin and Restoration an Environmental
History of Israel. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

Course themes and readings:

Class 1: Introduction : Political ecology as theory

What is Theory for, What is Political Ecology ?
Politics, Ecology and Nature
Course Logistic

Readings:
In class:
Michael Burrawoy: How to Read Theory. 2000
Raymond Williams. Nature. in Keywords.

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Class 2: Origins and history of the Field
The emergence of political ecology
Readings:
Robbins, 2011. Part 1,
Paulson, S., L. Gezon, and M. Watts, (2003), “Locating the Political in Political Ecology: An Introduction,”
in Human Organization 62(3): 205-217.
Walker, Peter (2005). “Political ecology: where is the ecology?” in Progress in Human Geography, 29(1):
73-82.
Recommended: Davis,Diana, historical political ecology the importance of looking back and moving
forward, Geoforum

Class 3: Historical political ecology part 1:

Colonialism, Nature, Development
Political ecology and the Middle East
Readings:
Robbins, Paul (2005). “A Tree with Deep Roots,” in Political Ecology (Routledge), pp. 17-41.
Davis and Burke. Introduction in “Environmental Imaginaries of the MENA”

Class 4: Historical political ecology part 2:

Nature development and early Environmentalism in Palestine
Case Study: the Hula drainage project
Readings
Grove, R. 1995. Chapter 7. Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of
Environmentalism, 1600-1860. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Gorney, E. 2007. (Un) Natural Selection: The Drainage Of The Hula Wetlands, An Ecofeminist Reading.
International Feminist Journal of Politics 9 (4):465-474
Escobar, Arturo (1995). Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World.
Princeton: PUP (selections).
Recommended background:
Said Oreintalism. Selected pages
Rabinowits and kawalde. 2007.
Stuart Hall the west and the rest

Class 5: Political ecology of Land conservation and Struggles

Readings:
Neumann Roderick (2004). “Nature-State-Territory: Toward a Critical Theorization of Conservation
Enclosures,” in Watts Michael. Liberation Ecologies.
Robbins, Paul (2004). “Conservation and Control,” in Political Ecology, pp. 147-172.
Yiftachel, Oren. 1998. Nation-Building and the Division of Space: Frontiers and Domination in the
Israeli'Ethnocracy'. [Link]
Yiftachel, O. 2009. Studying al-Naqba/Negev Bedouins: Toward a Colonial Paradigm? Hagar: Studies in
Culture, Polity and Identities 8 (2):173-192

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 Yiftachel Oren 2013. The Unrecognized Bedouins space: The development of a strategic issue, in Pedazur,
R. (ed). The Bedouins in the Negev - strategic Challenge to Israel (Hebrew). In The Bedouins in the Negev -
strategic Challenge to Israel, ed. R. pedazur, 8-18. Netanyah: Daniel Abraham Center for Strategic Dialogue
Orenstein, D. E., and S. P. Hamburg. 2009. To populate or preserve? Evolving political-demographic and
environmental paradigms in Israeli land-use policy. Land Use Policy 26 (4):984-1000.

Class 6: Political Ecology of trees and forest

Forest and trees as a political realm
Forestation in Israel and Palestine
Readings:
Gordillo, G. 2002. Locations of Hegemony: The Making of Places in the Toba's Struggle for La Comuna,
1989‐99. American Anthropologist 104 (1):262-277
Zerubavel, Y. 1996. The Forest as a National Icon: Literature, Politics, and the Archaeology of Memory.
Israel Studies99-60:)1( 1
Tal Alon. 2013. All the Trees of the Forest: Israel’s Woodlands from the Antiquity to the Present. New
Haven: Yale University Press Selected pages.
Shaul Cohen in Davis and Burke. Davis, D. K., and E. Burke, III eds. 2011. Ecology and History :
Environmental Imaginaries of the Middle East and North Africa. Athens, OH, USA: Ohio University Pres
Irus Braverman. 2014. “Trees and War” in Planted Flags: Trees, Land, and Law in Israel/Palestine
Cambridge Studies in Law and Society pp. 1-29

Class 7: Political ecology and water scarcity

Scarcity as social construct
Water, state power and hegemony
Readings:
Mehta, L. 2001. The Manufacture of Popular Perceptions of Scarcity: Dams and Water-Related Narratives
in Gujarat, India. World Development 29(12): 2025–2041.
Mehta and Baker. 2011. “The political ecology of water” in Peet, R., P. Robbins, and M. Watts. Global
Political Ecology: [Link] 245-270.
Alatout, S. 2007. State-ing natural resources through law: the codification and articulation of water
scarcity and citizenship in Israel. Arab World Geographers 10 ( 1):16-37
Eran Feitelson, 2013. The four eras of Israeli water policies. In Water Policy in Israel: Context, Issues and
Options (Edited by Nir Becker). Springer
Optional:
Fischhendler, I ., Blankshtain, G; Shuali, Y and Boykoff, M. Communicating mega-projects in the face of
uncertainties: Israeli mass media treatment of the Dead Sea Water Canal. Public Understanding of Science

Class 8: Political Ecology of war, Militarism and Security

Readings:
Robbins and Watts. 2011. Global environmental politics. Introduction to Part 4 . pp. 225-227.
Urdal, H. 2005. People vs. Malthus: Population pressure, environmental degradation, and armed conflict
revisited. Journal of Peace Research 42 (4):417-434
Uri Gordon. 2013.” Olive Green: Environment Militarism and the Israel Defense Force”. In Orenstein, D., A.
Tal, and C. Miller eds. Between ruin and Restoration an Environmental History of Israel. Pittsburgh:
University of Pittsburgh Press. Pp.242-262

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Recommended:
Deudeny, D. 1990. Environment and security: muddled thinking. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 47(3):
21-28.
Homer-Dixon, T. 1994. "Environmental scarcities and violent conflict: evidence from the cases."
International Security 19(1): 5-40.

Class 9: Political ecologies of resistance

Modes of negotiation and resistance
Readings:
Watts and Peets 1996. Introduction
Robbins, Paul (2005). “Environmental Identity and Social Movement,” in Political Ecology, pp. 187-203.
McKee, E. 2013. Performing Rootedness in the Negev/Naqab: Possibilities and Perils of Competitive
Planting. Antipode:1

Class 10: Challenges to Political Ecology: New Environmental Determinisms.

Diamond, J. (1997), Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company. (read his lecture on the web – 10,000 years of human history in 45 minutes…). Also see the
discussion on Guns, Germs, and Steel in Antipode (35/4, 2003).
Gallup, J.L., J.D. Sachs, and A.D. Mellinger (1999), “Geography and Economic Development,” in
International Regional Science Review 22(2): 179-232.
Hausmann, R., (2001), “Prisoners of Bad Geography,” in Foreign Policy, 122: 44-54.

Class 11: Where to now?

Israel, the environment and for and against political ecology
Readings:
Orenstein and Silverman. “The future of Israeli environmental movement: is a Major Paradigm Shift
Underway?” in Tal, and C. Miller eds. Between ruin and Restoration an Environmental History of Israel.
Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Pp.357-380
Robbins, Paul (2005). “Where to Now?” Part IV in Political Ecology, pp. 203-218.
Watts, Michael and Richard Peet (2004). “Liberating Political Ecology,” in Liberation Ecologies, Chapter
One. Routledge, pp. 3-47.
Recommended Reread:
Brookfield, Harold (1999). “A review of political ecology: issues, epistemology, and analytical narratives,”
in Zeitschrift fur Wirtschaftsgoegraphie. 131-147.
Paulson, S., L. Gezon, and M. Watts, (2003), “Locating the Political in Political Ecology: An Introduction,”
in Human Organization 62(3): 205-217.
Walker, Peter (2005). “Political ecology: where is the ecology?” in Progress in Human Geography, 29(1):
73-82.

Class 12 : Students presentations