Nationalising Oil and Knowledge in Iran: Labour, Decolonisation and Colonial Modernity, 1933–51

Mattin Biglari

Buch

Nationalising Oil and Knowledge in Iran

Labour, Decolonisation and Colonial Modernity, 1933–51

Mattin Biglari

Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 2025

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How did British oil production in Iran shape both subaltern anticolonialism and colonial afterlives in the country?

Examines the history of Iranian oil nationalisation ‘from below’, following struggles between the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now BP) and subaltern actors in the city of Abadan, southwest Iran
Based on archival sources from Iran, UK and US, as well as Persian-language newspapers, oral histories, and memoirs
Engages with energy history, postcolonial/subaltern studies, and science & technology studies to interrogate epistemic struggles over oil expertise, highlighting themes of technopolitics, environment, development, and embodied knowledge
Adopts a multiscalar approach to situate Abadan in networks of colonialism and racial capitalism, especially through corporate social engineering schemes to produce racialised and gendered subjectivities
Illuminates the paradox of resource nationalism in global decolonisation, promising economic emancipation and yet further entrenching colonial modernity

Iran’s nationalisation of oil in 1951 was a key catalyst for the rise of resource nationalism as an animating force of global decolonisation, expelling the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC, now known as BP) after nearly fifty years of domination in southwest Iran. Nationalising Oil & Knowledge in Iran turns attention to the origins of nationalisation in the everyday struggles between the oil company and subaltern actors in the city of Abadan, then home to the world’s largest oil refinery and deeply imbricated in networks of colonialism and racial capitalism. Engaging with energy history, postcolonial/subaltern studies, and science & technology studies, the book focuses on the politics of expertise: how nationalisation reproduced the epistemic coloniality of the oil company, which rested on local dispossession, social engineering, as well as racial and gendered segregation. It argues that nationalisation diverged from subaltern contestations of oil expertise in Abadan, which presented a more fundamental challenge to colonial modernity.

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Frontmatter Öffentlich zugänglich PDF downloaden	i
Contents Öffentlich zugänglich PDF downloaden	v
Figures Öffentlich zugänglich PDF downloaden	vi
Acknowledgements Öffentlich zugänglich PDF downloaden	viii
Acknowledgements Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	1
1 Refining Knowledge: Building the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and the Abadan Refinery Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	49
2 The City of Oil: Social Reproduction, Infrastructure and Anti-colonial Resistance in Abadan Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	83
3 The ‘Character’ of Engineering: Training, Subjectivity and Knowledge Production in the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	123
4 The City of Science: Labour, Epistemic Struggle and Everyday Politics in the Abadan Refinery, 1946–1951 Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	165
5 Expertise, Resource Nationalism and the Paradoxes of Oil Nationalisation in Iran Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	211
6 Nationalisation from Below: The 1951 General Strike Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	238
Epilogue: Nationalised Oil and the Paradoxes of Decolonisation Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	266
Bibliography Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	277
Index Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	304

Informationen zur Veröffentlichung

Seiten und Bilder/Illustrationen im Buch

eBook veröffentlicht am:

18. Februar 2025

eBook ISBN:

9781474489638

Seiten und Bilder/Illustrationen im Buch

Inhalt:

336

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474489638

eBook ISBN: 9781474489638

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For universities and colleges of further and higher education

Nationalising Oil and Knowledge in Iran

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