Environmental Discourse and Cultural Narratives in Algeria: A Linguistic Analysis of Competing Representations in Nature and Development

Abstract

Algeria faces increasing environmental pressures associated with desertification, water scarcity, climate change, and hydrocarbon dependent development. At the same time, environmental debates in the country are shaped by competing discourses concerning nature, development, and sovereignty. This study examines how environmental meanings are constructed and contested within Algerian environmental discourse through the interaction between traditional ecological knowledge, state developmental narratives, and contemporary environmental activism. The study adopts a qualitative discourse analytical approach grounded in the post structural discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe. The analysis is based on a purposively selected corpus consisting of policy documents, academic studies, environmental reports, and media and activist texts related to anti-fracking mobilizations in southern Algeria. The findings reveal that traditional ecological systems such as foggaras and ghout oasis agriculture articulate environmental stewardship through communal governance, ecological adaptation, and sustainable resource management. In contrast, post-independence developmental discourse frames natural resources primarily as instruments of industrial modernization and national sovereignty. The study further demonstrates that contemporary environmental activism challenges this extractivist model by linking environmental protection with democratic participation, social justice, and cultural identity. Environmental discourse in Algeria, therefore, emerges as a field of political and ideological contestation in which competing actors attempt to define legitimate models of development and sustainability. The study contributes to environmental discourse scholarship by demonstrating how ecological debates in North Africa are deeply connected to historical memory, political authority, and struggles over resource governance. The findings further suggest that sustainable environmental governance in Algeria requires greater recognition of local ecological knowledge and more participatory approaches to environmental decision-making.