Flammable Societies Studies on the Socio-Economics of Oil and Gas

The impact of the oil and gas industry “ paradoxically seen both as a blessing and a curse on socio-economic development “ is a question at the heart of the comparative studies in this volume stretching from Northern Europe to the Caucasus, the Gulf of Guinea to Latin America. Britain "s transformation under Margaret Thatcher into a supposedly post-industrial society orientated towards consumer sovereignty was paid for with revenues from the North Sea oil industry, an industry conveniently out of sight and out of mind for many. Drawing on bottom-up research and theoretical reflection the authors question the political and scientific basis of current international policy that aims to address the problem of resource management through standard Western models of economic governance, institution building and national sovereignty. This book offers valuable material for students and researchers concerned with politics, inequality and poverty in resource-rich countries. Among the key critical issues the book highlights is the need to understand the politics of social territorialism as a response to exclusionary geopolitics.

Joh-Andrew McNeish is Senior Researcher at the Chr. Michelsen Institute and Associate Professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Owen Logan is a Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen and a contributing editor to Variant magazine.

1. Introduction (John Andrew McNeish & Owen Logan) * Section I: Conceptual Issues and New Approaches * 2. Beyond the Predictable Curse of Regression: Critical Research Agendas and Knowledge Politics of Oil (Bret Gustafsen, University of Washington) * 3. Law, Risk and Sovereign Epistemologies (Suzana Sawyer,University of California at Davis) * 4. Where Pathos Rules: The Visual Culture of the Resource Curse (Owen Logan) * Section 2: Case Studies 8 5. The Impact of Oil on a Stateless European Nation: the Historical Relevance of the Scottish Experience since the 1960s (Terry Brotherstone, University of Aberdeen) * 6. Understanding Oil Development through an Evolutionary Geographical Political Economy: Divergent Trajectories and Political Agency in the UK and Norway (Andrew Cumbers, University of Glasgow) * 7. Procrastination or Sensitivity? Hesitant Elites and the Socio-economic Explosiveness of Energy Subsidies in Russia (Indra Overland, NUPI) * 8. Living under the Bullet: Internal Displacement in the Azerbaijani Oil Boom (Heidi Kjærnet, NUPI) * 9. Reconfiguring the 'Landlord': The Struggle over Petroleum Revenues Historically and Comparatively (Anna Zalik, York University, Canada) * 10. A Country without a State? Governmentality, Knowledge and Labour in Nigeria (Femi Folorunso, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria; Philippa Hall, University of Central Lancashire & Owen Logan) * 11. Money and Power to the People: Development from Below and Oil Money from Above (Iselin Åsedotter Strønen, University of Bergen) * 12. The Company of Social Production and the Democratisation of Knowledge in PDVSA-INTEVAP (Marie Victoria Canino, Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC)) * 13. Socio-Economic Dynamics and the Symbolism of the Economy of Gas in Bolivia (Fernanda Wanderley, Leila Mokrani & Alice Guimaraes, CIDES /UMSA Bolivia)
14. On Curses and Devils: Resource Wealth and Sovereignty in Tarija, Bolivia (John Andrew McNeish) * 15. Conclusion: The Policy Implication of a Socio-Economics of Oil and Gas Management (McNeish & Logan)