Abstract
This talk is based on an article I am writing with my colleague Isaac “Asume” Osuoka. It explores different Nigerian oil workers' social relations and environmental interests, as a potential basis for climate solidarity with communities and environmental actors. We argue that in much academic literature, workers’ agencies in relation to the environment is based on assumed common or conflictual interests with environmental (and other) actors, rather than empirically studying their subjectively expressed interests. Interests, we believe, are the foundation for building climate solidarity and alliances. Based on interviews with four groups of oil workers, our analysis shows that they depict a social landscape as deeply fragmented, but express common interests in the environment and climate change across this landscape. This, we claim, indicates a potential for climate solidarity—not necessarily to phase out petroleum, but to reduce emissions and pollution. Such alliances could contribute to the re-empowerment of oil workers, enhancing their agency.
Bio
Camilla Houeland is a research professor at Fafo, where she works on several projects relating to oil, work and the green transition. She holds a PhD in development studies, and her thesis was about unions power and agency in political economy of oil. The data for this article was part of her postdoc at UiO under the project WAGE - work, labour, and greening the economy.
