88 research outputs found
Geology, potentiality, speculation: on the indeterminacy of "first oil"
This article uses what the petroleum industry calls âfirst oilâ to examine the uneven process of resource making on the margins of global zones of extraction. It explores how the double obscurity of hydrocarbon prospectsâboth geologically obscured and their worth not yet revealed by the marketâgenerates particular material constraints, pauses, and setbacks characteristic of petroleum production. The article draws on ethnographic and archival material from SĂŁo TomĂ© and PrĂncipe (STP) where repeated attempts to explore offshore oil have yet to transform geological potential into an economic asset. It highlights the incongruous effects of certain epistemic practices and devices (contract, zone, and well) aimed at facilitating first oil by managing uncertainty. As a result, they work as gestures of an indeterminate matter whose existence has continued to be doubted
Re-Conceiving the Resource Curse and the Role of Anthropology
FORUM: ANTHROPOLOGY OF OIL AND THE RESOURCE CURS
A doubtful hope: resource affect in a future oil economy
In global debates about natural resource extraction, affect has played an increasingly prominent, if somewhat nameless, role. This paper proposes a theorization of resource affect both as an intrinsic element of capitalist dynamics and as an object problematized by corporate, government, and thirdâsector practice. Drawing on ethnographic research in SĂŁo TomĂ© and PrĂncipe (STP), I explore the affective horizons generated by the prospect of hydrocarbon exploration: a doubtful hope comprised of visions of material betterment, personal and collective transformation, as well as anticipations of failure, friction, and discontent. I also examine the multitude of oilârelated campaigns, activities, and programmes initiated by nonâgovernmental organizations and global governance institutions in STP, animated by the specific conundrums presented by oil's futurity. In light of this, I argue that what we see emerging is a new resource politics that revolves around not simply the democratic and technical aspects of resource exploitation but increasingly their associated affective dissonances and inconsistencies
Visions of prosperity and conspiracy in Timor-Leste
In Timor-Leste, visions of radical societal transformation and future wealth derived from gold and oil are accompanied by concerns that outsiders might be conspiring to rob the country of its riches, as well as conjuring up dystopian scenarios of sinister plots and future mayhem. Examining national narratives and local accounts, this article argues that visions of prosperity and visions of conspiracy are two sides of the same coin; both are embedded in an understanding that power works in invisible ways. In discussing these visions in relation to the literature on âconspiracy theoriesâ and âcargo cultsâ (terms that have recently been imported to the study of Timor-Leste), it explores the critical potential of these visions. Whereas the labels âconspiracy theoryâ and âcargo cultâ create distinctions between the ârationalâ perspective of the West and the âirrationalityâ of non-Western others, as practices these visions end up collapsing such distinctions by appropriating the power of the outside
The extractive industries and development: The resource curse at the micro, meso and macro levels
The resource curse literature has necessarily evolved in a rather fragmented way. While economists, political economists and political scientists have largely focused on the role of mineral abundance in long-term growth with the analysis largely confined to the country (macro) or regional (meso) level, anthropologists, sociologists and other social scientists have explored the development impacts of extractive industries at the community (micro) level. While this has provided a rigorous and comprehensive exploration of extractive industries and their impacts, causal factors that bridge and/or leap-frog these levels tend not to be accounted for. In this paper we examine the evolution of the literature across disciplinary lines and different levels of scale to assess the current status of resource curse debates. In so doing, we aim to explore how an integration of the various multi-scale approaches can help address the persistent problem of the resource curse
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