Paper short abstract:

The paper conceptualizes the Mediterranean as »Critical Zones« to ethnographically explore more-than-human ontologies and multispecies histories of Egypt and Lebanon that focus on contradictions and politics of living in the ruins of a failed/damaged state/Earth while remaining radically hopeful.

Paper long abstract:

The proposed paper is situated on the Mediterranean southeastern shores in Egypt and Lebanon and builds upon multidisciplinary research and scholarship around the so-called Anthropocene, global climate change and ecological collapse. In particular, the project engages with the concept of »Critical Zones« recently proposed by Bruno Latour and others. The paper is based on my planned postdoctoral research project that aims to ethnographically trace multiple lines of contradiction that emerge within the intersectional simultaneity of ecological and societal collapse. The goal is to develop a combined heuristic approach to Mediterranean Critical Zones as more-than-human ontologies and multispecies histories that focus on contradictions and politics of living in the ruins of a failed/damaged state/Earth while remaining radically hopeful – on the ground, in theory, and in ethnography.

In the paper I would like to put up for discussion my envisioned comparative ethnographic approach, which on the one hand, under the theme of »Egypt's Hydrosocial Politics and Future«, employs a »floating ethnography« to explore the dynamics and impacts of current hypermodernist development projects on local Nile dwelling communities. On the other hand, under the theme of »Lebanon's Decay|Future« the approach aims at juxtaposing these with an emancipatory and collaborative ethnography of local resistances, radical hope and despair in Lebanon as a state in complete decay.

The project/paper aims to contribute to an anthropology of (failed) states, collaborative ethnographic methodology and more-than-human entanglements and multispecies histories in the Mediterranean and MENA region.