Political economy of the resource curse in Africa revisited: The curse as a product and a function of globalised hydrocarbon assemblage

This paper revisits the resource curse thesis that explains the tendency of natural resource rich economies in developing world (including in Africa) to perform poorly economically and on other development indicators. It argues that the exiting conceptualisation of the curse suffers from methodological nationalism where state weaknesses/strengths is credited as the main factor that conditions and shapes natural resource impacts. Such analysis disregards how external actors and structures interact with national and local politics to shape development. Using network approach, this paper postulates that the curse is a tendency conditioned and moulded by a 'globalised assemblage' - interactions between and among states, national and local politics, transnational interests, technologies and globalised structures and actors.