The Petro-State Masquerade - by Ryan Cecil Jobson

About the Book

"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"--

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"This luminous work is a magisterial account of the Trinbagonian petro-state as a continuation of the plantation economy that characterized much of the Caribbean and the colonized world. If you want to know more about how oil runs through the veins of the colonial and postcolonial world, you need to read this book."-- "Laleh Khalili, University of Exeter"

"Taking the hydrocarbon-rich island of Trinidad as a microcosm of the predicament of the postcolonial state, The Petro-state Masquerade offers at once a welcome model of critical anthropological inquiry and an incisive account of the dissimulations of national identity and economic security that characterize the legitimating spectacles of Caribbean sovereignty."-- "David Scott, Columbia University"

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.