Offshore attachments : oil and intimacy in the Caribbean / Chelsea Schields.

Author/creator Schields, Chelsea author.
Format Book
PublicationOakland, California : University of California Press, [2023]
Descriptionxii, 287 pages : illustrations (black and white), maps (black and white) ; 24 cm
Subjects

Contents Introduction : "oil is the lubricant" -- Crude Bargains : sex and the making of an oil economy -- Diminishing returns : domesticity on the edge of whiteness -- Manufacturing surplus : population and development in the downstream -- "Sexuality, yes! slavery, no!" : erotic rebellion and economic freedom -- Dutch diseases : race, welfare, and the quantification of kinship -- Conclusion : acts of attachment.
Abstract "In this highly original work, historian Chelsea Schields illuminates how the contested management of sex and race transformed the Caribbean into a crucial site in the global oil economy. By the mid-twentieth century, the Dutch islands of Curaçao and Aruba housed the world's largest oil refineries. To bolster this massive industrial experiment, oil corporations and political authorities offshored intimacy, circumventing laws regulating sex, reproduction, and the family in a bid to maximize profits and turn Caribbean subjects into citizens. Offshore Attachments reveals that, from boom to bust, Caribbean people challenged and embraced efforts to alter intimate behaviors in service of the energy economy, molding the industry from the ground up. Moving from Caribbean oil towns to European metropolises and examining such issues as sex work, contraception, kinship, and the constitution of desire, Schields narrates a surprising story of how racialized concern with sex shaped hydrocarbon industries as the age of oil met the end of empire"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in other formOnline version: Schields, Chelsea Offshore attachments Oakland, California : University of California Press, 2023 9780520390829
LCCN 2022055944
ISBN9780520390805 hardcover
ISBN0520390806 hardcover
ISBN9780520390812 paperback
ISBN0520390814 paperback
ISBNelectronic publication

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner General Stacks HD9490 .C272 S354 2023 ✔ Available Place Hold