Projects of devotion: energy exploration and moral ambition in the cosmoeconomy of oil and gas in the Western United States. (11th March 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: High, Mette M.
• Other Names: HIGH METTE M. guestEditor.; SMITH JESSICA M. guestEditor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Volume 25(2019)Supplement 1
• Page Start: 29
• Page End: 46
• Publication Date: 2019-03-11
• Subjects: Anthropology -- Periodicals; Ethnology -- Periodicals; 301
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-9655.13013
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1359-0987

Abstract

Abstract: This essay considers how people working in the oil and gas industry in Colorado perceive their involvement in energy exploration in relation to broader practices of devotion, compassion, and outreach. I argue that although their energy projects may appear to merely echo companies' formal promotional pitches, the oilfield and corporate actors' own moral ambitions reveal more‐than‐human cosmoeconomic visions of oil's potentiality. This essay thus demonstrates how multiple and diverging ethical registers intersect and inform the valuation of oil.