Notes on the moral economy of gas in present-day Azerbaijan

Tristam Barrett

Central Asian Survey, 2014, vol. 33, issue 4, 517-530

Abstract: Most residents of Baku, Azerbaijan, retain a positive view of the state restructuring of the gas distribution network and do not object to the principle of paying for gas at its ‘market price’. They are, however, very critical of the street-level officials (gazoviki) of the state-owned gas company, who often defraud residents in elaborate schemes. This article highlights the neighbourhood-level impacts of broad technological changes in the domestic gas distribution system, arguing that they have permitted new forms of exploitation by gazoviki. By examining the terms in which citizens have responded to such scams, it is possible to relate these commentaries to locally prevailing and culturally patterned understandings of moral economy and governance. Popular critiques both of malfeasance in the gas network and of wealth accumulation as a result of Azerbaijan's hydrocarbon boom are discursive attempts to restore a moral order that citizens increasingly worry has been abandoned.

Date: 2014
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DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2014.982947

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