Paper short abstract:

Considering the Kurdish democratic movement as an example of the radical imagination, this paper will discuss the challenges of moving beyond established narratives. The paper will also demonstrate how anthropology has a crucial role to play in the process of imagining such alternative futures.

Paper long abstract:

In recent years the Kurdish democratic movement has developed a new, radical political ideology built on progressive ideas such as direct democracy, gender equality, and ecological sustainability. This ideology, described as democratic confederalism, or democratic autonomy, is also presented as an explicit rejection of the 'ideological foundations of the nation-state' identified as: nationalism, patriarchy, and religiousness (Öcalan, 2011). This attempt to imagine an alternative future for the homeland of the Kurds, and to move beyond established narratives within the Kurdish movement, such as the need for an independent Kurdish state, has faced some resistance from the wider Kurdish community.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with the Kurdish diaspora in Berlin, this paper will explore some of the challenges faced by activists promoting this 'utopian vision' for the future of Kurdistan, and how they seek to overcome these established narratives.

This paper will also consider how anthropology is ideally suited to explore such a project of the radical imagination; just as social movements, such as the Kurdish democratic movement, are demonstrating that 'another world is possible' the anthropological record reveals that 'other worlds are (already) possible' (Escobar, 2009). Moreover, by providing us with a perspective which 'allows us to see how we can be radically other to ourselves' (Hage, 2012), this paper will demonstrate how anthropology has an important role to play in the radical, and increasingly necessary, quest of imagining alternative futures.