The Electric Zone

Post-doc Görkem Aydemir-Kundakcı’s latest piece was just published in Anthropology News’ special issue on “Energy”. In this special issue, she writes about “The Electric Zone” and the contested space that the Enguri Dam plays in the Georgia-Abkhazia borderlands. She writes eloquently:

“The Engurhesi complex has generated a distinct field around the river, one that is perceived as transcending politics and immune to the uncertainties of the conflict. Since the war, it has offered predictability to its employees in a zone of protracted violence and precarity. Whatever the future of the conflict, Engurhesi employees think the dam will continue to work—after all, both sides need the electricity it produces. Bakuri explained that “Engurhesi reconciled people who hated each other, who could not stand being in the same room. I never think that I am working for Georgia, Abkhazia, or Russia. I work for the people… I have worked here for 30 years. I will probably live here forever. When I die, they will probably bury me here.” For people who work at the power station, the dam is outside the contours of the future that the conflict continuously disrupts; it is a place that brings opposing views and people together… Engurhesi’s electricity, however, becomes controversial and divisive as it enters homes through an infrastructural network that has barely endured a regime change, the war, an ongoing conflict, and lack of maintenance. Rather than the quiet, efficient ease of electricity flows in many other settings, Engurhesi’s electricity charges war-torn homes with continuous anxiety, and cross-border lives with resentment.”

Congratulations, Görkem!

Read more by clicking here.

Enguri Dam

Photo by: Görkem Aydemir-Kundakcı