Housing and Communal Services and Subsidiary Economy in Chukotka: Dynamics of Materiality of the Northern Village

Abstract

Drawing on field materials collected in 2018–2023, the article examines the features of the functioning of housing and communal services and subsidiary farming in remote villages of Chukotka. The focus of the study is the strategy of connecting local systems to centralized ones, which allows us to conclude that the economy of northern villages has a hybrid structure, where private farming largely exists due to the availability of state-funded infrastructure. I show how local people gain access to state-provided resources – electricity, heating networks, water supply and building materials, acquiring resources for running a subsidiary farm, constructing and maintaining greenhouses, sheds, garages and other buildings that act as “plugins” built into the housing and communal services structure. The peculiarity of the projects implemented in the North is manifested in their fundamental incompleteness, and for their implementation it is necessary to supplement them with other projects. In this context, the infrastructure supported by state funding gives the local population a certain freedom for creativity. A private subsidiary farm is able to carry out its daily tasks in remote conditions largely due to the functioning of the housing and communal services.