Petro-State Masquerade - Oil, Sovereignty, and Power in Trinidad and Tobago

"The Petro-State Masquerade studies the fraught relationship between fossil fuels and political power in Trinidad and Tobago. Examining the past, present, and future of the country's oil and gas industries, anthropologist Ryan Jobson traces the processes by which early economic growth turned into a recession, leading to loss of state control and the incursion of foreign capital. Despite the islands' increasingly volatile and vulnerable financial condition, however, government officials have continued to promote it as a land of inexhaustible resources and limitless potential profit. The result is what Jobson calls a "masquerade of governance," whereby Trinidad and Tobago persists in projecting an image of itself meant to appeal to multinational investors, both as a natural paradise as well as the site of large infrastructure projects that bank on a future known to be uncertain. In his book, Jobson examines the gulf between this state-crafted narrative and the vexed realities of the country's failed petrochemical aspirations, arguing that its ongoing decolonization lies in the disarticulation of natural resources, capital, and political power"--

About the author

Ryan Cecil Jobson is the Neubauer Family Assistant Professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Race, Diaspora & Indigeneity, and affiliated with the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, and the Center for Latin American Studies, at the University of Chicago.

Product details

• Authors: Ryan Cecil Jobson
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.12.2024
• EAN: 9780226835730
• ISBN: 978-0-226-83573-0
• No. of pages: 240
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Pre and early history; Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Politics; HISTORY / Caribbean & West Indies / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Developing & Emerging Countries, Caribbean islands, Archaeology, Social and cultural anthropology, History of the Americas, Development Studies, Development economics and emerging economies, Global South / Developing countries