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

Mattin Biglari

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Nationalising Oil and Knowledge in Iran

Labour, Decolonisation and Colonial Modernity, 1933–51

Mattin Biglari

Language: English

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

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

February 18, 2025

eBook ISBN:

9781474489638

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

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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About this book

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