ABSTRACT
The potential links between environmental stress, natural resource scarcity and (violent) intergroup conflict have attracted much academic and political attention in recent years. Scientific studies on the issue have often been criticised for their rationalist and positivist conceptions of the environment, conflict and research. By contrast, a large literature on social conflicts and on human-environment interactions has emphasised the intersubjective construction of conflict identities, threat perceptions and environmental assessments and the relevance of these constructions for human agency. This chapter argues that SKAD is useful to analyse and understand these intersubjective dimensions of socio-environmental conflict and cooperation. In order to support this claim, I demonstrate how SKAD can help us to make sense of the simultaneity of conflict and cooperation about water between Israel and Palestine. By doing so, I also explore how SKAD can be productively combined with field research and local interviews, especially in contexts characterised by intense conflicts.
