Murat Arsel

“Stating” Nature’s Role in Ecuadorian Development: Civil Society and the Yasuní-ITT Initiative

Development politics in Ecuador has experienced major changes since the start of Correa’s presidency in 2007. Paralleling a regional trend, the state has become a central agent in the economy, particularly in extractive industries. Revenues accruing to the state from intensified usage of non-renewable resources have been central to the implementation of Correa’s political agenda. At the same time, constitutional changes introduced in 2008 have granted rights to nature and held the promise of increased participatory engagement between the state and civil society. The emergence and development of the Yasuní-ITT initiative, which is built on the idea of leaving oil underground in exchange for financial contributions from the international community, demonstrates that increased attention to environmental conservation by the state has not resulted in improved participation. Instead, the incipient clash between the state’s mission to provide socioeconomic development and to preserve nature has resulted in the state sidelining civil society and opening the possibility of intensified social conflict over the role of nature in Ecuadorian development.

Environmentalism of the malcontent: anatomy of an anti-coal power plant struggle in Turkey

This paper introduces the concept of the ‘environmentalism of the malcontent’ to characterise a type of environmental activism that is increasingly common in Turkey. It illustrates its argument by analysing the resistance movement against the proposed Gerze coal power plant. By so doing, it problematises the relationship between class and environmental consciousness as well as the ability of the existing literature to accurately characterise the underlying motivation of movements against development projects. It shows that the mobilisation in Gerze was not rooted only or primarily in environmental concerns but animated by disaffection with, among other things, neoliberal developmentalism, disregard of democratic policy-making and violent suppression of societal dissent by the state. ‘Environmentalism of the malcontent’ describes the way in which long-lasting dissatisfaction with broader processes marking the development trajectory of the country combined with personal experience in radical political action enabled a group of urban, mostly retired, residents of Gerze to successfully collaborate with peasant activists against the construction of the power plant by deploying arguments regarding its potential negative environmental impact.

Neoliberal developmentalism, authoritarian populism, and extractivism in the countryside: the Soma mining disaster in Turkey

ABSTRACT While state-society relations in Turkey have historically been top-down and coups d’état periodically interrupted democratic politics, the recent authoritarian turn under Erdoğan is remarkable. Two dynamics are especially salient. First, Erdoğan and his AKP have been particularly effective in deepening the neoliberalisation of economy and society. Their policies have created a new form of neoliberal developmentalism, where solutions to all social ills have come to be seen as possible through rapid economic growth. Second, they have intensified the transformation of the countryside, where new forms of dispossession and deagrarianisation open the way to an unprecedented extractivist drive. Together, neoliberal developmentalism and extractivism have resulted in growing social dissent. The eruption of anger after the Soma coal mining disaster that killed 301 miners is one such case. The paper shows how Erdoğan and the AKP use populist tactics (ranging from an uptick in nationalist discourse to the provision of ‘coal aid’ in winter) to assuage their critics. Where these prove inadequate, an increasingly violent crackdown on social dissent is being deployed in the name of peace and order as the country remains in a state of emergency since the attempted coup of July 2016.