Resource curse? governmentality, oil and power in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

Bibliographic Data

ID3948466
AuthorsMichael Watts (0000-0002-8571-0030)
Year2004
Volume9
Issue1
Pages50-80
Publication date2004-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14650040412331307832
OpenAlexW2054636104
LanguageEN
Citations received371

What might it mean to say that resources, and resource-dependency, have consequences for the conduct of politics? This article explores the research conducted under the sign of resource politics associated with the work of Michael Ross, Paul Collier and others through a detailed examination of the political economy of oil in Nigeria. Much of the resource politics work suffers from either too strong a commodity-determinism or an insufficient attention to the ways in which specific resource characteristics matter analytically with respect to politics, rule and conflict. I approach the oil question in Nigeria by using the work of Michel Foucault and Nikolas Rose and by identifying three different forms of governable space and rule (the chieftainship, the ethnic minority, and the nation state) associated with oil-based capitalism. Governable spaces as forms of rule, identity and territoriality are not necessarily fully governable (they may be almost ungovernable and wracked by internal dissent and conflict) and may not be compatible among themselves, but rather work against one another in complex and contradictory ways

Capitalism · Governmentality · Identity politics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Resource curse · Sociology · Sovereignty · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Law · Natural Resources and Economic Development

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