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Abstract
The perception of Central Asia and its place in the world has come to be shaped by its large oil and gas reserves. Literature on energy in the region has thus largely focused on related geopolitical issues and national policies. However, little is known about citizens’ needs within this broader context of commodities that connect the energy networks of China, Russia and the West. This multidisciplinary special issue brings together anthropologists, economists, geographers and political scientists to examine the role of all forms of energy (here: oil, gas, hydropower and solar power) and their products (especially electricity) in people's daily lives throughout Central Asia and the Caucasus. The papers in this issue ask how energy is understood as an everyday resource, as a necessity and a source of opportunity, a challenge or even as an indicator of exclusionary practices. We enquire into the role and views of energy sector workers, rural consumers and urban communities, and their experiences of energy companies’ and national policies. We further examine the legacy of Soviet and more recent domestic energy policies, the environmental of energy use as well as the political impact of citizens’ energy grievances.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the anonymous reviewers of the articles as well as the editor of Central Asian Survey for their insightful comments and helpful suggestions. We hope that this special issue becomes the platform for a continued discussion and debate on the everyday issues people experience in accessing and using energy.
Notes
1 The United Energy System is also called an ‘energy ring’, meaning the network of high-voltage transmission wires which allowed for balancing electricity needs, especially during peak hours.
2 We here outline but two examples in the region, for further details on particular histories of energy production and consumption, for example, in the Caucasus, refer to the individual contributions.
3 Donor engagement in Kyrgyzstan's energy companies has produced reports examining the various parts of the sector, e.g. http://www.energo.gov.kg/site/index.php?act=view_cat&id=19 (accessed September 23, 2013) or International Crisis Group (Citation2007, Citation2011) reports.
4 By the ‘everyday’ we mean not just the daily use of different forms of energy, but the activities involved in the production, distribution and utilization of energy and how this shapes people's quotidian experiences.
5 We see this special issue as opening up such an enquiry, and there is much more need for research on these issues.
6 Overland and Kutschera (Citation2012) have argued that Putin's government, for example, holds back in its ambitions to raise energy prices to recover costs for fear of popular protest at the disruption of this part of the social contract.
7 For the full speech, see http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/nov/21.htm (accessed April 1, 2013).
8 GOELRO is the acronym of the Russian title Gosudarstvennaya kommisya po elektrifikatsii Rossii.
9 For a brief history of the energy sector in Tajikistan, see http://www.tajhydro.tj/ru/low-energy/history (accessed October 2, 2013).
10 This is an interesting period of economic development and energy sector growth, but little is known about the public response to this.
11 We do not mean to suggest privatization as a panacea here. Indeed, in other parts of the world, versions of privatization have brought about their own negative impact on citizens, and consequent protests (cf. also Barrett in this issue).
12 By November 2014, no sustainable solution had yet been found to provide natural gas to southern Kyrgyzstan.
13 Turkmenistan is an exception to this trend, providing free gas to its citizens. Armenia, also, has privatized the energy sector and energy tariffs have increased to meet market costs for electricity generation and distribution, and maintenance costs, as detailed by Strakes (in this issue).
14 Research tends to be compartmentalized according to energy sectors and type of resource: the literature on oil dominates.
15 Drawing from the operatic imagery from which the name Nabucco is derived, it is also a tale of persecution and a descent into madness, which also characterizes the way in which energy policies – official and clandestine – have created global markets based on insecurity, and markets that also fuel armed conflict. This is what is often captured through the tactics of the ‘Great Game’, where (imperialistic) superpowers are pitted against each other in resource- and merchandise-rich countries.
16 Since much remains to be explored about perceptions of energy and energy consumption in Central Asia, we see this issue as opening up a space of conversation to be continued.
17 Similar contestations are apparent in Alberta, Canada, between indigenous peoples, regions and national governments control of oil.