Lecture
Online
Urbanism as Material Accumulation

Oil Spaces: Exploring the Global PetroleumscapeCarola Hein in conversation with Neeraj Bathia

In this lecture, Carola Hein introduces the concept of the petroleumscape, a layered physical and social landscape that reinforces itself over time through human action. The petroleumscape includes different types of interconnected spaces—industrial, administrative, retail, and infrastructural—that are usually considered separately. The lecture examines what aspects of the petroleumscape have been highlighted, downplayed, and hidden as corporate, state, and other relevant actors have attempted to shape perceptions of petroleum and the landscape of which it is a part. Hein also outlines five key stages in the petroleumscape’s development, beginning with the innovations in obtaining petroleum that took place in Pennsylvania in 1859, when petroleum served primarily as a source of lighting fluid, and ending with recent attempts to overcome petroleum dependence.

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