This volume examines the social history of oil workers and investigates how labor relations have shaped the global oil industry during the twentieth century and today. It brings together the work of scholars from a range of disciplines, approaching the social, political, economic and cultural dimensions of oil. The contributors analyze a number of key oil producing regions, including the Americas, the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Europe and Africa.
This volume looks at the social history of oil workers to investigate how labor relations and experiences have shaped the emergence of this global extractive industry. Three inter-related themes are investigated by scholars: the political life of labor, the productive life of labor, and the urban and social life of labor. Compiled here is the work of scholars from a range of disciplines who situate labor and the social, political, and cultural dimensions of oil at the center of their analysis. In this comparative study, the historical and contemporary experiences of oil workers are analyzed from a number of key oil producing regions, including Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Europe and Africa.
"The book's objective is to show some of the diversity of labour relations in the sector, rather than be comprehensive, and in this it succeeds. ? Working for Oil is a valuable and distinctive addition to research on the evolution of the global oil industry, and will be of interest to anyone who cares about industrial relations and the agency of labour in this sector." (Gavin Bridge, Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 61 (2), April, 2019)