"A re-conceptualisation of the widely-held concept of the "resource curse," which contends that resource booms inevitably lead to numerous political, social and economic problems. This book counters that these problems are by no means inevitable, but are rather the direct result of specific...

Standing on the broken ground of resource extraction settings, the state is sometimes like a chimera: its appearance and intentions are misleading and, for some actors, it is unknowable and incomprehensible. It may be easily mistaken for someone or something else, like a mining company, for...