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Accepted Paper:
Affect as liability in petrocapitalist regulation
Gisa Weszkalnys
(London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE))
This paper highlights the role of affect in the racialised logics of petrocapitalist regulation.
Paper Abstract:
This paper highlights the role of affect in the racialised logics of petrocapitalist regulation. Drawing on insights from anthropology, psychology, and critical race theory, it argues that racial capitalism shapes regulatory modalities in extractive sites. Specifically, I show how (presumed and actual) affects of corporate actors, state leaders, and ordinary citizens are differently at stake in the formulation and application of regulatory policy. National political elites, for example, may come to be blamed for improper conduct and greed, while the exaggerated hopes of citizens and communities serve as grounds for social upheaval. By positing affect as a liability (Berg and Ramos-Zayas, 2015), regulation thus deflects from the ways extractivist projects reinforce and exacerbate structural inequalities. Rather than mitigating harm, regulation becomes an instrument of power. The paper builds on critical ethnographic comparison, revisiting material from research with oil and gas regulatory bodies in two different ethnographic sites (UK, São Tomé and Príncipe).