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Updated: Aug 15, 2026
11:20
In Situ Visualization of the Phase Behavior of Oil Samples Under Refinery Process Conditions
Published on: February 21, 2017
Chemical Governmentality: Manufacturing Politics in Oil Refineries
1University of Toronto, ON, Canada.
Social Studies of Science
|August 14, 2026
Summary
This study introduces chemical governmentality, revealing how oil refining processes embed political logics into petroleum products like LPG and PNG. These materials materially shape domesticity, sociality, and state-citizen relations.
Area of Science:
- Sociology of Science and Technology
- Chemical Engineering
- Political Science
Background:
- Petroleum products influence human relations beyond policy, through their chemical properties and material forms.
- The technical-chemical processes transforming geological oil into sociopolitical structures remain underexplored.
- Understanding how governmentality is encoded during petroleum product manufacturing is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and introduce the concept of "chemical governmentality."
- To analyze how chemical engineering processes in oil refineries govern sociopolitical life.
- To examine the material embedding of political logics into petroleum products.
Main Methods:
- Ethnographic research conducted in Indian oil refineries and households.
- Analysis of chemical engineering processes, product specifications, and testing protocols.
- Examination of fuels like kerosene, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), and Piped Natural Gas (PNG).
Main Results:
- Refining processes, product specifications, and testing protocols embed political logics into petroleum products.
- Fuels are chemically and infrastructurally configured to shape domesticity, sociality, and state-citizen relations.
- Consumers are disciplined through material means, demonstrating chemical governmentality.
Conclusions:
- Chemical governmentality offers a new lens to understand the sociopolitical impact of petroleum products.
- Chemical engineering is an arena where material machinations shape everyday government.
- Petroleum products govern not just through ideology but through their inherent chemical properties and material forms.
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