Paper short abstract:

In this paper, based on my fieldowrk in the Autnomus Administration of North and East Syria (Rojava) I will discuss some of the entlagmentments of revolutionary politics based on social ecology and women's liberation and everyday life embeded in oil extractivism and state bureucracy.

Paper long abstract:

The rise of autonomy in regions of North and East Syria did not only involve the setup of new structures of democratic society envisioned and implemented by the Kurdish Freedom Movement, but also the opening up of a new space for activities undertaken by a large number of independent, NGO's, that could not function under the Syrian Baath Regime. The ideals of women's liberation and social ecology form one of the backbones of the project of Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and have tremendous impact on social changes in North-East Syria after 2012 revolution.

This created an interesting space in which new forms of agency and subjectivity emerged, in a specific context of deconstruction of the structures of the authoritarian nation-state and the formation of new structures of governance in which mainstream notions of citizenship aren’t easy to apply. On the other hand Autonomus Administration relies on fossil fuels in its day to day economy and has to deal with difficult heritage of Syrian State and everyday violence of ongoing war.

The ecological issues create an interesting nexus in this web of relations in which the workings of different ideologies of nature and subject creation can be observed. Drawing on fieldwork in West Kurdistan (Rojava), I will discuss how the environmental initiatives create spaces of creativity and resistance, prompting activists to take more responsibility for shaping the future of the region and reconfiguring their relations with both the Kurdish Freedom Movement and with remnants of the Syrian State.