Lezing 'Oil wealth, space, and inequality in Baku, Azerbaijan'

Azerbaijan’s capital city, Baku, is one of the few oil cities in the world that has been a site of continuous production of oil from the nineteenth century to this day. The extraction of oil and the wealth it has generated have been key forces in shaping Baku’s landscape for a century and a half.

In this talk, Dr. Sayfutdinova discusses how spatial inequalities in Baku have been structured by the distribution of oil wealth since the beginning of the of the first oil boom in 1872. Despite the changes in the political and economic systems from the first colonial oil boom to the Soviet nationalisation and the post-Soviet spectacularisation, the regimes of urban exclusion and inclusion in Baku have always been centered around oil.

The speaker also discusses how the spaces of production, consumption, and reproduction have been organized in Baku over the period of oil extraction and trace key continuities and -changes. The speaker will situate these developments in the broader political-economic context in the region and beyond. 

About the Speaker

Dr. Leyla Sayfutdinova is a Senior Lecturer in Critical Area Studies at the University of Glasgow. Her research focuses on the post-socialist transition in Azerbaijan, particularly urban change, nationalism, and social consequences of the post-Soviet industrial restructuring.

Her most recent project ‘Turning oil into stone’, funded by the European Commission through Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, examines the multiple ways in which oil industry and urban space have been co-produced in Baku, one of the world’s earliest oil cities.

Dr. Leyla Sayfutdinova’s research has been published in Journal of Eurasian Studies, Labor History, Work, Employment and Society, and Nationalities Papers.