What do oil infrastructures tell us about resistance to multinational oil corporations’ activities in extractive enclaves? How do we make sense of how communities relate with oil infrastructures? How do images of oil infrastructure make meanings to inhabitants of resource enclaves?
Paper long abstract:
What do oil infrastructures tell us about resistance to multinational oil corporations’ activities in extractive enclaves? How do we make sense of how communities relate with oil infrastructures? How do images of oil infrastructure make meanings to inhabitants of resource enclaves? This paper interrogates the place of climate politics in the ethnographic mapping of energy practices by paying attention to how community members respond to images of infrastructure within their communities. The paper aims to bring into focus the important role that oil infrastructure can play in making meanings of resistance to the activities of oil corporations in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The paper suggests that climate politics and physical infrastructure can help in not only mapping environmental problems in countries rich in natural resources but also gauging responses to an energy future that incorporates community participation in resource enclaves. Thus, the paper uses oil infrastructures to establish a connection between climate politics and an energy future without oil.