Irrigate to accumulate: Moral ecologies of water and land speculation in Jordan's eastern desert fringe

Fred Wojnarowski

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Speculation through enclosure and irrigation at the edges of Jordan's urban expansion into the desert has coincided in recent years with an ever-louder discourse of water scarcity, and a moral concern over the use of groundwater via illegal wells, eroding the viability of small-scale agriculture. Tracing a specific case of a speculative gambit and placing it in relation to a nearby agricultural community experiencing the disastrous effects of water scarcity, I explore how rural and peri-urban Bedouin anxiously anticipate various uneasily coexisting futures around land and water, between personal enrichment and wider social and environmental ruination.

Keywords: accumulation; anticipation; Jordan; land rush; property speculation; value; water scarcity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-06-01
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Published in Focaal, 1, June, 2026, 2026(105), pp. 53-66. ISSN: 0920-1297

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