Politics and economics in Africa

Frynas describes the interaction between oil companies and village communities, and discusses the economic, social and legal problems that may be encountered in this context. He derives important conclusions regarding the involvement of multinational companies in developing countries. Drawing on a large number of court cases, he uses a new approach to illustrate the social and environmental impact of multinational companies. Using exemplary cases from Nigerian courts on topics such as oil spills and compensation payments for land acquisition, Oil in Nigeria demonstrates how legal materials can be used to understand conflicts between multinational companies and indigenous people. The court cases deal with large multinational companies such as Shell, in addition to smaller oil company subcontractors such as Seismograph Services. It provides a wealth of information on issues such as land conflicts, loss of property and life, as well as oil company compensation efforts. This information is supplemented by recent political inside material related to Shell's Nigerian operations.