Journal article
When Öcalan met Bookchin: The Kurdish Freedom Movement and the Political Theory of Democratic Confederalism
Geopolitics, Vol.26(4), pp.973-997
2021
Abstract
The transformation of the Kurdish Freedom Movement towards Democratic Confederalism has promised a new horizon for emancipatory political organisation. This article examines the relationship between Bookchin's political theory of communalism and Öcalan's democratic confederalism informed by various lived practices of the Kurdish Freedom Movement. After situating this movement in the geopolitics of the contemporary Middle East and international relations, the article explores the social and historical framework of Bookchin's theory and its specific rejection of hierarchy that has been taken up conceptually and politically by Öcalan. We trace this in the dissolution of the PKK and the adoption of the new paradigm of democratic confederalism. The second part examines this organisational basis of the Kurdish Freedom Movement's in its support for local, autonomous, and federated, forms of direct democracy and the complementarities between Bookchin's and Öcalan's theorisation of communalism and confederalism. Finally, we look at the regional and international organisational and political implications of the transformation of the Kurdish Freedom Movement in its shift away from Marxist-Leninism, nationalism, and statism, towards communalism and examine both the challenges and opportunities facing this revolutionary process.
Details
- Title
- When Öcalan met Bookchin: The Kurdish Freedom Movement and the Political Theory of Democratic Confederalism
- Authors
- Damian Gerber (Author) - Griffith UniversityShannon Brincat (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts, Business and Law
- Publication details
- Geopolitics, Vol.26(4), pp.973-997
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Date published
- 2021
- DOI
- 10.1080/14650045.2018.1508016
- ISSN
- 1465-0045
- Organisation Unit
- Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre; Tropical Forests and People Research Centre; School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Forest Research Institute; School of Law and Society; Sustainability Research Cluster
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99451377102621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Web Of Science research areas
- Geography
- Political Science