BAKOIL · Turning oil into stone: Oil legacies in the narratives of urban continuity and change in Baku, Azerbaijan

Turning oil into stone: Oil legacies in the narratives of urban continuity and change in Baku, Azerbaijan

The Project “Turning Oil into Stone” explores the continuous reproduction of ‘oil city’ narratives in Baku, Azerbaijan. Baku is one of the world’s oldest sites of continuous production of oil, which now spans more than 150 years. As such, it is a paradigmatic oil city, whose history has been closely intertwined with oil industry. The strong link between oil and gas industry and urban development in Baku can become a problem for energy transition away from fossil fuels. Research on the intertwining of urban forms and oil and gas industry in this city is important for the broader understanding of oil urbanism and its potential transformation in the course of post- oil development and energy transition. This study asks: what is the role of oil in the discourses on Baku’s urban past and future? And how can a post-oil future be imagined in a place which has been so strongly connected to oil industry? Drawing on ethnographic methods, this project aims to examine the construction of Baku’s ‘oil city’ identity in the discourses of professionals involved in memory-making. The findings of the project will be relevant beyond Baku for other sites whose economic and spatial organization are intertwined with the oil industry. The findings of the project suggest that more attention should be paid to the cultural importance of extractive industries in places where they have been culturally and historically entrenched. In Baku, oil industry is so closely intertwined with positively valued aspects of modernization, such as education, healthcare, provision of public services, urban development, that even just criticism of oil industry is often met with resistance. Working towards public acceptance of energy transition requires careful and nuanced engagement with the cultural impacts of fossil fuels in the places of their extraction. Devising strategies for post-oil development should take into account local meanings of oil industry. Industrial heritage and incorporation of the legacies of oil industry into tourism, recreation, and creative industries can contribute to successful energy transition. The objectives of this Marie Skłodowska Curie Action (MSCA) have been 1) to examine the official and unofficial narratives of urban continuity based on oil production in their socio-cultural context; 2) to explore the practices of collective remembering and forgetting in constructing the narratives of Baku as a historical center of oil production; and 3) to explore how an urban identity based on oil affects the imagination of a post-oil future.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union