33 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
Cursed resources, or articulations of economic theory in the Gulf of Guinea
Economic experiments, or attempts to shape national and local economies with the help of economic theory, have been typical of post-war development efforts. Economic sociologists have explored the role of such experiments to demonstrate how economics â as a set of practices, ideas and technologies â enacts its worlds. This paper examines one such case of high-powered economic theory and its enactment in an emergent West African oil economy by focusing on economist Jeffrey Sachs's advisory project in SĂŁo TomĂ© and PrĂncipe. It pivots on the âresource curseâ, an economic device that has recently gained purchase in global policy circles. This paper argues that economic devices are not simply imposed on pre-arranged worlds. Instead, they collide with and adjust to already existing politico-economic and socio-cultural conditions, resulting in complex articulations. Drawing on ethnographic material, I critique the ability of the resource curse to make sense fully of apprehensions of the past, present and future consequences of extractive industry developments. Contrasting economic accounts of an incipient curse with competing and complementary local accounts of the effects of oil wealth, I propose a new model for the sociological analysis of the variety of articulations into which an economic device, such as the curse, may enter
Patchy haunts
This is a contribution to the special section â100s for Katie,â which celebrates Kathleen Stewartâs work. It reflects on the capacity of dreams to embody the affective stakes of ethnographic fieldwork