Paper short abstract:

This paper examines life in Gyumri, Armenia, shaped by the 1988 earthquake and ongoing political and economic crises. Through an affective lens on renovation and construction practices, it explores how residents navigate precarity and envision the future within a landscape of decay and uncertainty.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines life in a state of ruin and decay in the cityscape of Gyumri, an Armenian city located on the border with Turkey. The city's dilapidated condition is largely the result of the devastating earthquake of 1988. The debris from this environmental catastrophe, coupled with the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union, decades of war, energy crisis, and corruption, have led many residents to perceive their city as a "sad place" to this day. Armenia's unresolved conflicts with Turkey and Azerbaijan, alongside its complex relationship with Russia, further contribute to a pervasive sense of uncertainty in everyday life.

Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, I explore renovation and construction practices as forms of dwelling in both ruin and uncertainty. These practices are enduring features of daily life in Gyumri. Using a relational affective approach, I investigate the embodied experiences and future-oriented practices that emerge in an environment marked by destruction, instability, and precarity. How do the residents of Gyumri navigate this precarity? What futures are imagined and constructed through renovation and construction practices?

Drawing on feminist affect theory, the anthropology of time, and precarity, I explore the affective dimensions of Gyumri’s ruination. My research illuminates the interplay between war, environmental disaster, imperialism, and political failure in shaping the everyday life and urban fabric of the city. Through an affective lens, I challenge conventional understandings of life in a precarious present by highlighting the coexistence of decay and stability as parallel pasts, presents, and futures within the same embodied experiences.