Project description DEENESFRITPL A new take on one of the world’s oldest oil cities Cities can take many years to grow as society develops. However, discovery of natural resources such as oil can lead to rapid urban development. When resource booms eventually turn to bust, such cities usually decline. This has not been the case in Azerbaijan’s ‘oil city’ of Baku. As one of the world’s earliest and most significant such city, Baku has perpetuated its dependence on oil for the last 150 years. Yet, little is known about the city’s legacy. The EU-funded BAKOIL project will use ethnography and textual analysis to examine the official and unofficial narratives of urban continuity based on oil production. It will also focus on how urban identity based on oil affects the imagination of a post-oil future. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective This research project will explore the construction of ‘oil city’ narratives in Baku, Azerbaijan. Baku is one of the earliest and historically most significant oil cities in the world. Despite this important legacy, there has been little scholarly attention to the ideological and cultural meanings of oil in different urban milieus. Addressing this gap in scholarship, this study aims to deepen scholarly understanding of the constitution of oil urbanism and its implications for post-oil future. The development of many cities that are linked to oil production is dependent upon the economic cycles of boom and busts of the industry. Typically, oil cities rapidly grow during a boom, and decline during a bust. Few cities are able to reinvent themselves after a bust, either by diversifying their economies or assuming the role of a technological hub for the industry. Baku is unusual among the world's oil cities, as it neither declined nor reinvented itself, but has perpetuated its dependence on oil for the last 150 years and continued to strengthen its identity as ‘the oil city’. Using a combination of ethnography and textual analysis, this study aims to provide a detailed ethnographic analysis of how Baku’s oil city identity has been constructed and reproduced in official and unofficial discourses by variously positioned professionals involved in memory-making, either directly (museum workers and urban heritage activists) or indirectly (oil industry professionals; city planners; tour guides). The main research objectives are: 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 among these groups. Fields of science social sciencessociologyanthropology Keywords oil urbanism boom and bust urban memory tourism Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Topic(s) MSCA-IF-2019 - Individual Fellowships Call for proposal H2020-MSCA-IF-2019 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF) Coordinator THE UNIVERSITY COURT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS Net EU contribution € 224 933,76 Address NORTH STREET 66 COLLEGE GATE KY16 9AJ St Andrews United Kingdom See on map Region Scotland Eastern Scotland Clackmannanshire and Fife Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 224 933,76
