An Anthropological Inquiry into Emergent Discourses and Practices of Environment in Iran

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  • ABE Satoshi
    Coaching Fellow, School of Global Humanities and Social Sciences, Nagasaki University

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Other Title
  • 環境意識から見る現代イランの社会文化的様相
  • An Anthropological Inquiry into Emergent Discourses and Practices of Environment in Iran : Framing through the Idea of Translation
  • Framing through the Idea of Translation
  • 人類学的視座による考察

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Since the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988, Iran has pursued economic development mainly by concentrating its efforts on expanding the industrial sectors. A series of development projects, however, left the country with some serious consequences: issues of environmental pollution. With environmental problems significantly exacerbating their way of life, Iranians have become conscious of these problems and are now searching for ways to resolve them. Those involved include not just environmental scientists but also self-taught citizens, journalists, and religious leaders, among others. The environment, as a result, has become the junction of emerging diverse fields as various environmental discourses are being debated and produced, and are developing in ways that reflect cultural politics in Iran. Most prominently, the expansion of scientific schemes in the field of environment has helped foster the material concept of the environment among many Tehrani urbanites; for them, the environment is increasingly understood to be something scientifically calculable and manageable. Yet, the analyses of cultural politics in Iran also reveal distinctive cultural dimensions of environmentalism that crucially define contemporary Iran: namely, those of nationalistic sentiments and Islamic hermeneutics. However incompatible they might seem, these discourses and practices of the environment are continuingly interacting and are interrelated with one another. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Tehran, this article explores a variety of ways in which this emerging field is problematized by various individuals and institutions, thereby producing particular knowledges and practices concerning the environment in the Iranian context.

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