Abstract:The fraught tectonic history of Anatolia has given oil in Turkey an absent presence. In this article, I examine how oil’s absent presence produces a series of speculations in Turkish public life regarding oil’s alleged abundance and its obstructed production. In particular, I trace widespread speculations that claim that the Treaty of Lausanne, which founded Turkey in 1923, will expire on its centennial anniversary in July 2023. I argue that speculations about the expiration of Lausanne harken back to both anx… Show more
A proliferation of examinations of vertical, voluminous, subsurface, subterranean/subaqueous, geological, or underground relationships has emerged in the last few years of geographic thought. This article seeks to summarize four key themes in which the subsurface has gained prominence: geopolitics, natural resource extraction, cultural geographies, and epistemological politics. The article nonetheless critiques ahistorical, presentist, and/or Eurocentric tendencies in accounts of subsurface spaces, topographical verticalities, and the desire to “fill” a supposed “hole” of subsurface geographies. Altogether, I call for more precise, comparative, and historicized interpretations of the varieties of spatial relations above and below the surface of the earth.
A proliferation of examinations of vertical, voluminous, subsurface, subterranean/subaqueous, geological, or underground relationships has emerged in the last few years of geographic thought. This article seeks to summarize four key themes in which the subsurface has gained prominence: geopolitics, natural resource extraction, cultural geographies, and epistemological politics. The article nonetheless critiques ahistorical, presentist, and/or Eurocentric tendencies in accounts of subsurface spaces, topographical verticalities, and the desire to “fill” a supposed “hole” of subsurface geographies. Altogether, I call for more precise, comparative, and historicized interpretations of the varieties of spatial relations above and below the surface of the earth.
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