Power of rhythms – trains and work along the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) in Siberia

Author(s)

V Kuklina, Olga Povoroznyuk, Gertrude Saxinger

Abstract

Train rhythms are dictated by regulations as well as the collaboration of human and non-human actants. When a railroad is the prime form of ground transportation and the mono-industry forming force in the cities along the railroad, the rhythms of trains have power over the everyday life of people who rely on them as passengers, workforce and traders. This is the case of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) in Siberia. The paper tackles the interaction of natural, technical, bureaucratic and economic rhythms and asks where power structures are located. Material and social networks of the involved actants are shaped by constraints and forces: Moscow driven bureaucracy, technological needs and natural conditions as well as the individual or collective needs and aspirations of social beings are entangled within the power structures that are intrinsic to railroad operations. This article is based on ethnographic field work in Siberia along the BAM. In it we argue that the diversity of rhythms introduced by the train company dominates other work and life rhythms that vary across gender, age, class and family status.

Organisation(s)

Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

External organisation(s)

Russian Academy of Sciences, George Washington University

Journal

Polar Geography

Volume

42

Pages

18-33

No. of pages

16

ISSN

1088-937X

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/1088937X.2018.1564395

Publication date

01-2019

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

504017 Cultural anthropology, 504009 Ethnology

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Geography, Planning and Development, General Earth and Planetary Sciences

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/61842ebd-68cd-484c-bff6-cc945c6f3c9a