Through thorns to value: sociotechnical problems on the way of coal from Kuzbass

About the author:

Aleksandra E. Piskunova, Junior Researcher, the Urban Studies Department, The Sociological Institute of the RAS – Branch of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia; alexpiskunova@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1928-0722

Abstract:

The issues of natural resources’ accessibility, provision, and efficient use invariably become the focus of attention at different levels of social organization. This article provides an alternative to the usual ideas of the “ready-made” and static objects that are awaiting use. Instead, the author reveals the multidimensional dynamics of their material existence and values. To make the conditions of social production of natural resources visible and meaningful, this process is conceptually presented as a sequence of sociotechnical problems rooted in networks of meanings, relationships, and real practices. The proposed analytical optics is implemented in an empirical study of coal development in Kuzbass, Russia’s main coal region. For the analysis, media reports on resource management have been selected. It is understood as evidence of the problematization of situations and the construction of problems in the regional public discourse. The results demonstrate that there are many barriers, difficulties and challenges on the way from strategic planning of coal mining to consumption, which manifest themselves in various aspects for the involved participants. It is revealed that arising in the process of Kuzbass coal production sociotechnical problems have the basis in issues of making a profit, maintaining the existing socio-political order, the state of the environment, and the normal routine of the local population.

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