Business School events
Browse events involving the University of Sussex Business School.
Let there be Blackouts: Electricity Distribution in Pakistan
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://universityofsussex.zoom.us/meeting/register/MibIbe76RI-ctygV4J6vnQ
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Abstract:
I start with an ethnographic encounter where a junior official in the bureaucracy of electricity takes the decision to switch off electricity supply for dozens of households. This results in a longer power outage for hundreds of people in a city in the south of Pakistan. I show that the decision to prolong the power outages is something that the officials call ‘saving the grid’. A strategy which allows them to keep the recovery rates up in the context of rising tariff prices, which are results of privatisation of electricity.
Bio:
Asad Abbasi is a final year PhD student at the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex. Asad’s thesis looks at Chinese financed coal-fuelled power plants and infrastructure of electricity in Pakistan. Asad has a masters degree in economic history and international development from LSE and an undergrad in economics from Queen Mary, University of London.