This article analyzes the labor relations American oil companies introduced in oil camps and company towns in Libya, as Libya became one of the main oil-producing countries of the Mediterranean. Through a study of government sources, corporate and trade union records, newspapers, memoirs, interviews, home videos and Facebook pages, it argues that between the mid-1950s and the early 1980s, debates and struggles over labor relations played a crucial role in shaping US – Libyan relations. Clashes and tensions between Americans and Libyans were not limited to trade unions and organized forms of labor protest, but extended to living spaces. By examining the conflicts that emerged around the oil camps and company towns American firms established in Libya, this paper sheds new light on the social history of labor in the oil industry. It argues that US oil companies reproduced the gender, class and racial hierarchies that characterized other American camps across the globe, based on racial and ethnic segregation, and the elevation of white women to symbols and agents of America’ s corporate civilizing mission. It thus contributes to an understanding of the experience of a specific category of skilled workers, which has not received much scholarly attention, but was crucial in the history of the global oil industry during the twentieth century, namely the expatriate workforce.

Building an Oil Empire: Labor and Gender Relations in American Company Towns in Libya, 1950s-1970s / Bini, Elisabetta. - (2018), pp. 313-335.

Building an Oil Empire: Labor and Gender Relations in American Company Towns in Libya, 1950s-1970s

Bini, Elisabetta
2018

Abstract

This article analyzes the labor relations American oil companies introduced in oil camps and company towns in Libya, as Libya became one of the main oil-producing countries of the Mediterranean. Through a study of government sources, corporate and trade union records, newspapers, memoirs, interviews, home videos and Facebook pages, it argues that between the mid-1950s and the early 1980s, debates and struggles over labor relations played a crucial role in shaping US – Libyan relations. Clashes and tensions between Americans and Libyans were not limited to trade unions and organized forms of labor protest, but extended to living spaces. By examining the conflicts that emerged around the oil camps and company towns American firms established in Libya, this paper sheds new light on the social history of labor in the oil industry. It argues that US oil companies reproduced the gender, class and racial hierarchies that characterized other American camps across the globe, based on racial and ethnic segregation, and the elevation of white women to symbols and agents of America’ s corporate civilizing mission. It thus contributes to an understanding of the experience of a specific category of skilled workers, which has not received much scholarly attention, but was crucial in the history of the global oil industry during the twentieth century, namely the expatriate workforce.
2018
978-3319564449
Building an Oil Empire: Labor and Gender Relations in American Company Towns in Libya, 1950s-1970s / Bini, Elisabetta. - (2018), pp. 313-335.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11588/738588
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