Springer Working for Oil: Comparative Social Histories of Labor in the Global Oil Industry

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. Review “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) Review “This important volume is a must-read for those who want to understand the changing fortune of life and labor in the world’s most strategic energy sector.” (Asef Bayat, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA) “Working for Oil offers an invaluable compendium of social relations across the most vital vital industry of the Twentieth Century.” (Leon Fink, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA) “While the literature on the petroleum industry is vast, research about oil workers is anything but. This collection addresses that gap, bringing together scholarship about labor from all oil regions of the world.  The global and multidisciplinary approach is rich and complex, setting a high standard for future scholars and inviting them to follow suit.” (Myrna Santiago, Saint Mary’s College of California, USA) “By attending to the complex role played by workers in the fossil fuel industries, this splendid book fills a major gap in contemporary analyses of the oil industry. Superbly researched, this collection promises to reshape debates and discussions in both labor studies and energy studies for years to come.” (Imre Szeman, University of Alberta, Canada) “The present volume is a pioneering exploration of the oil proletariat, covering the history of major production sites on five continents, and the daily lives and struggles of oil workers in these places. The book is indispensable reading for all those interested in the global history of labor.” (Marcel van der Linden, International Institute of Social History, the Netherlands) “There is no convincing answer to the question why historians of the oil industry have ignored its workers nor why working class historians have ignored the oil sector, but this collection clarifies why both kinds of histories are the worse for it. Working for Oil is a game changer.” (Robert Vitalis, University of Pennsylvania, USA) From the Back Cover 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. About the Author Touraj Atabaki is Senior Researcher at the International Institute of Social History at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science. He also holds the chair of the Social History of the Middle East and Central Asia at the School of the Middle East Studies of the Leiden University, The Netherlands. Elisabetta Bini is Resarch Fe