El. knyga: 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 processesby 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"--

A historical and ethnographic study of the fraught relationship between fossil fuels and political power in Trinidad and Tobago.
 
Examining the past, present, and future of Trinidad and Tobago’s oil and gas industries, anthropologist Ryan Cecil Jobson traces how a model of governance fashioned during prior oil booms is imperiled by declining fossil fuel production and a loss of state control. Despite the twin-island nation’s increasingly volatile and vulnerable financial condition, however, government officials continue to promote it as a land of inexhaustible resources and potentially limitless profits.
 
The result is what Jobson calls a “masquerade of permanence” whereby Trinbagonian state actors represent the nation as an interminable reserve of hydrocarbons primed for multinational investment. In The Petro-state Masquerade, Jobson examines the gulf between this narrative crafted by the postcolonial state and the vexed realities of its dwindling petroleum-fueled aspirations. After more than a century of commercial oil production, Trinidad and Tobago instructs us to regard the petro-state as less a permanent form than a fragile relation between fossil fuels and sovereign authority. Foregrounding the concurrent masquerades of oil workers, activists, and Carnival revelers, Jobson argues that the promise of decolonization lies in the disarticulation of natural resources, capital, and political power by ordinary people in the Caribbean.