Abstract
This article examines the strategies of two satellite operators working across post-communist territories of Central Asia: Eutelsat and Kazsat. To do so it develops a critical approach called footprint analysis, which involves investigating the variety of practices that occur within range of a given satellite's service. Satellites have been used in post-communist territories to circulate broadcast and telecommunication signals, facilitate flows of capital and reshape geographic imaginaries. In addition, satellites have become orbital platforms for the Caspian's booming oil industry. Satellites are used to support everything from surveying oil fields to monitoring drilling operations, from construction of oil rigs to the maintenance of pipelines. The article sets out to develop a model of analysis which can account for the more 'cultural' uses of satellites (i.e. for broadcasting) in relation to their more 'extractive' uses (i.e. for natural resource development).
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