Sarakhs Oil and Gas Industry and its Economic Consequences;A Qualitative Study Regarding the Local Beneficiaries’ Attitudes (Rural Governors)

The present study based on constructivism approach intends to discover and review the economic consequences of the oil and gas industry regarding the local beneficiaries’ attitudes. In this qualitative study,the data collection procedure has been done through in-depth interviews and the grounded theory method has been put in practice to analyze the collected data.19 rural governors of the central District of Sarakhs city have been interviewed .respecting a theoretical and purposeful sampling method and consequently the collected data were eventually coded and analyzed in the form of 27 fundamental categories and one core category.The research results indicate that according to the interpretations and experiences originated in the local actors’ (rural governors) minds, the oil and gas industry of this region has had various economic consequences.On the one hand, components such as lack of social mobility, lack of bargaining power, profiteering of companies, corporate influence and authority have provided the necessary causal conditions for the formation of a dual economic structure (core / periphery-based) in the oil and gas industry.On the other hand, regional discrimination has facilitated and strengthened the adoption of a non-indigenous approach, social inequality, and lack of oversight of these dual conditions(interfering factors). In the context of corporate privatization (contextual conditions), local governors react to this dual economic structure through two strategies; resistance (protest) and passivity (acceptance).The present study findings indicate that several economic consequences such as the emergence of new classes of people, labor exploitation, conflict of interest, identity conflict, temporary workforce, etc., have arisen in the areas of oil and gas industry.In such a circumstance, actors and the local community have either adapted and converged with the existing dual structure or have been led to incompatibility and divergence.