“’Steeling’ Modernity and Blackened Gold: Governmental Repossession and Residential Dispossession in Baku”

Keywords: Dispossession, Oil, Caucasus, Gentrification, Geopolitics
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 22

Abstract

Reminiscent of Lenin's 1916 observation that Baku "had transformed from a contemptible town into a first-rate industrial center of Russia," the contemporary capital of Azerbaijan has become a planned stage-set of modernity. Largely liberated from budgetary constraints by oil, and notwithstanding its pre-existing 19th century masonry cityscape, Baku has become an experimental urban center where designers' imagination and plasticity of form now dominate the skyline. But modern Baku, with its dizzying display of hotels and imported London taxicabs, is the seat of a central governmental apparatus that imposes a social contract that offers futuristic wonders in exchange for civil obedience. While contemporary Baku is heralded by its central government as the economic, cultural, and social hub of the Caucasus, for many of Baku's residents this rapid and continuing cosmopolitan transformation is, by turns, inspiring, threatening, alienating and confusing. Inside the crucible of Azerbaijan's emerging modernity, residents debate and deliberate what it means to be Azerbaijani, in a city that claims "European Charm of the Orient." This paper reflects on the importation of "European" features the powerful feel will maintain their authority, in complement with the ways that diverse, nostalgic, dislocated and hopeful residents are negotiating the parameters by which the city—and nation—is changing.