Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on how mobility indeterminacy on the roads in the declining ex-Gulag Kolyma area, in North-Eastern Russia, brought about a grass-roots rescue infrastructure, particularly emergency rescue pickets, and thus provided a condition for the creation of value.

Paper long abstract:

Kolyma is a notorious ex-Gulag region in the North East of Russia, one of the world's coldest places. Since the USSR collapse, the region has experienced massive depopulation and the closure of dozens of small industrial towns. For the dwellers of the remaining settlements, this has resulted in vast empty areas of hundreds of kilometers without Internet or mobile connection (and timely aid in case of accidents) on the long and dangerous way to the regional capital Magadan. In my paper, based on recent fieldwork in the region, I will focus on how mobility indeterminacy on the Kolyma roads brought to life a grass-roots rescue infrastructure, which includes unique "emergency rescue pickets", satellite and mobile phones, and people passing by the road. It also includes road ethics and preparatory practices for travel, especially in winter. I will mainly concentrate on a case of a costly invention of emergency rescue pickets by a Magadan entrepreneur made possible due to the importance of indeterminacy for Kolyma's mobility. By doing that, I demonstrate how indeterminacy provides a condition for value creation (cf. Alexander, Sanchez 2018).