Doctoral Dissertation Research: Washing Ashore: Offshore Oil Production and Corporate-Sponsored Development in Angola

安哥拉出现了一种复杂而矛盾的新发展形式：企业赞助的发展。学者和活动人士对这个国家的石油资本主义悖论感到遗憾，即每天超过100万桶的石油产量带来的意外收入，而该国的人类发展指标是世界上最低的之一。在安哥拉长达30年的内战结束两年后，政府正在减少而不是增加社会支出，并继续逃避考虑为多边资金提供资金所需的透明度标准。与此同时，在安哥拉经营的跨国石油公司正在修建学校，提供艾滋病教育，资助小企业发展，并分发农业种子和工具。这项研究项目将研究企业赞助发展的结构和特征，以及跨国企业责任压力的变化影响，安哥拉政府要求企业捐款重建饱受战争蹂躏的国家，以及居住在开采地点或附近的社区提出的请求。安哥拉政府文件和公司报告中跟踪石油产量和利润与投资的量化数据集将阐明这些对发展的贡献的结构和特征。以不同产油省两个社区的企业赞助发展为中心的互补民族志案例研究，将揭示不同的暴力、污染和政治镇压历史对企业倡议的影响。社区成员的叙述将探讨企业赞助的发展模式中可能存在的矛盾，在这种模式下，在发生石油泄漏或天然气泄漏时，扮演捐助者角色的相同公司可能会威胁人类健康或以资源为基础的生计。这项研究将展示社区如何回应企业关于责任的言辞，并对企业提出相应的发展要求。鉴于在新自由主义改革的背景下，国家发展预算不断缩小，这项研究将为企业在国际发展中不断变化的角色提供及时的见解。美国的国际援助进行了重组，通过千年期挑战账户将发展资金的最大份额重新分配给治理良好的国家，并通过美国国际开发署的全球发展联盟建立了公私伙伴关系，使企业在安哥拉等被排除在MCA资金之外的国家的发展中发挥核心作用。通过调查依赖资源的社区、石油国家和跨国采掘公司之间的复杂关系，该项目将深入了解企业赞助的新发展模式的动态，并探索当地人如何利用企业利益为自己谋利。

A complex and contradictory new form of development has emerged in Angola: corporate-sponsored development. Scholars and activists have lamented the country's 'petro-capitalist' paradox of windfall revenues generated by a production rate of over one million barrels per day where human development indicators are among the lowest in the world. Two years after the end of a three-decade civil war in Angola, the government is decreasing rather than increasing social spending and continuing to shirk transparency standards requisite to consideration for multilateral funding. At the same time, transnational oil corporations operating in Angola are building schools, providing AIDS education, funding small business development, and distributing agricultural seeds and tools. This research project will examine the structure and character of corporate-sponsored development and the changing influence of transnational pressures for corporate responsibility, Angolan government demands for corporate contributions to rebuild the war-torn country, and requests generated from communities living within or near the site of extraction. Quantitative data sets from Angolan government documents and corporate reports tracking oil production and profits against investments will elucidate the structure and character of these contributions to development. Complementary ethnographic case studies centering on corporate-sponsored development in two communities in different oil-producing provinces will reveal the influence of disparate histories of violence, pollution and political repression on corporate initiatives. Narratives of community members will explore the possible contradictions inherent in the corporate-sponsored development model wherein the same corporations playing the role of benefactor may threaten human health or resource-based livelihoods in the time of an oil spill or gas leak. This study will demonstrate how communities respond to the corporate rhetoric on responsibility and make corresponding claims on corporations for development. Given shrinking state development budgets in the context of neoliberal reforms, this study will provide timely insights into the changing role of corporations in international development. The restructuring of international assistance in the United States to redirect the lion's share of development funds to countries with good governance through the Milennium Challenge Account and the creation of public-private partnerships through USAID's Global Development Alliance offers corporations a central role in development in countries excluded from MCA funding like Angola. By investigating the complex relations between resource-dependent communities, petro-states and transnational extractive corporations, this project will provide insight into the dynamics of the new corporate-sponsored development model and explore the ways local people might leverage corporate interests to their benefit.