Nigeria is the world’s thirteenth largest oil exporter, with exports of over 2.2 million barrels per day (OPEC report, 2010). The capital-intensive oil sector provides 95 per cent of the nation’s foreign exchange earnings, and about 65 per cent of budgetary revenues. Despite the huge resources from oil sales, the major stake holders within the Nigerian oil sector (the government, host communities, and oil companies) generally believe there is environmental degradation in the oil region. However, they sharply disagree on what precisely constitutes environmental degradation in the Niger Delta and who bears responsibility for it. The major stake holders; accuse one another as being responsible for the situation (Frynas 1999). My research examines the conflicting set of voices and claims among the stake holders in the Nigerian oil industry in describing what environmental degradation is and how it affects their relationships with each other. My argument is that though the key players in the Nigerian oil industry render quite different accounts of what the environment means to them, they all seem to be plausible and, indeed convincing in their own accounts. As a result, the more ‘convincing’ the accounts seem to be, the more dramatic the views become and the more apparent it becomes that we need to employ rigorous analyses to create order in the diversity of their different conflicting accounts by showing that there is much to be gained by setting free the different versions of voices that the key players use to explain what the environment means in their relationship. This thesis considers face to face interviews as a method to explore how my respondents give their own versions of what their environment means to them in their social world. The thesis argues that the way people give their version can be interpreted within the perspective of Goffman’s dramaturgical metaphor which views the performers acting on stage as “merchants of morality” (1956:156).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:559198 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Gusau, Tukur Ismaila |
| Contributors | Lilley, Simon. : Parker, Martin |
| Publisher | University of Leicester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/2381/27594 |
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