Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy in the Caribbean

Offshore Attachments explores how the management of sex and race transformed the Caribbean into a crucial site in the global oil economy, with the Dutch islands of Curaçao and Aruba housing the world's largest oil refineries. Historian Chelsea Schields demonstrates how Caribbean people embraced and challenged efforts to alter intimate behavior in service to the energy economy, narrating a surprising story of how racialized concern with sex shaped hydrocarbon industries.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 18 April 2023
Publisher: University of California Press

Offshore Attachments delves into the intricate dynamics that shaped the Caribbean into a pivotal hub in the global oil economy. By the mid-twentieth century, the Dutch islands of Curaçao and Aruba emerged as the world's largest oil refineries, driven by a relentless pursuit of profit and the desire to transform Caribbean subjects into citizens. In this pursuit, oil corporations and political authorities sought to outsource intimacy, circumventing laws regulating sex, reproduction, and the family. Historian Chelsea Schields sheds light on how Caribbean individuals both embraced and challenged these efforts, exploring the complexities of sex work, contraception, kinship, and the constitution of desire within the context of the energy economy.

Schields' narrative takes us on a journey from the bustling oil towns of the Caribbean to the bustling European metropolises, unraveling the surprising story of how racialized concerns with sex shaped the hydrocarbon industries as the age of oil met its demise. Through meticulous research and compelling storytelling, Offshore Attachments offers a fresh perspective on the intersection of power, race, and sexuality in the era of global capitalism.

This book is a must-read for scholars, activists, and anyone interested in understanding the complex web of historical and contemporary relationships that shape the Caribbean and the world. It sheds light on the ways in which economic interests, political ideologies, and social norms intersect, and challenges us to reevaluate our understanding of the past and the present.

Weight: 426g
Dimension: 153 x 229 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520390812