Social history of marshrutkas in Volgograd: consistency of words and rupture of practices

The article concerns a social history of marshrutkas in Volgograd in the spirit of Michel Foucault. It is argued that the superficial unity of the word "marshrutka" conceals a heterogeneous assemblage of moral orders, technical artifacts, forms of ownership and legal statuses. The history of this ensemble is marked by ruptures between three sociotechnical configurations. It is shown how moral and technical heterogeneity of these configurations and the gap between them lead to a feeling of injustice and conflicts characteristic of marshrutkas nowadays.