In the making and unmaking of statehood: An exploration of how the state and petroleum corporations negotiate over the generation of socio-economic development in Tanzania

This article explores how the state and transnational oil and gas corporations negotiate over socio-economic development in Tanzania. It focuses on how public–private and local–global boundaries are in constant reconfiguration between the actors. The article responds to two shortcomings in previous literature on corporate social responsibility, governments and development. First, state agency and power in the global South have been overlooked when the prevailing focus of research has been on community–business relations. Secondly, when states have been addressed, they have commonly been understood either as deviations from a Weberian, ‘modern’ state or as allied with corporate interests. This article departs from these approaches and analyses state–business relations through a focus on discourses and practices that make and unmake statehood. Building on the ‘negotiating statehood’ framework, the analysis focuses on the actors, repertoires, resources and modes of governance in the negotiation over development. The analysis shows how corporate-driven development becomes deeply entangled in the making of statehood, even if the corporate approach revolves around unmaking and improving statehood.