Conceptualization of environmental movements in the periphery of Iran

Contrary to the common wisdom that traces the origin of environmental movements to the urban middle class, the existing empirical findings imply that such an account of environmentalism fails to provide a further approach. Environmental movements may emerge from non-urban settings or within different social classes and groups beyond the middle class. Since the state’s marginalizing structure and capital provoke environmental damage in peripheral regions, the social groups living there have been also put in jeopardy. In this respect, it is not coincidence that these peripheral settings are at the core of a variety of environmental movements, which are intricately linked to life and politics. This article, by reviewing the empirical research on environmental movements in Iran, shows that the majority of existing studies focus on the large cities in Iran. As they fall into the mainstream approach to environmental movements, their outcomes remain limited in understanding the inquiries on environmentalism in the periphery of Iran. Even if few studies provide some pertinent results to this research, they lack a conceptual framework to describe environmentalism in the periphery, which is at the hub of this paper. Through the consolidated reading of "center-periphery," "subaltern environmentalism," and "new social movement" theories, some key notions such as "internal colonialism," "subaltern environmentalism," "eco-nationalism," "internal mode of action," and "external mode of action" are then introduced and articulated in a speculative manner, drawing on Althusser's "overdetermination" approach.