1st Edition
Criminal Resistance? The Politics of Kidnapping Oil Workers
Biography
Temitope Oriola is Assistant Professor of Criminology at the University of Alberta, where he received his PhD in 2011. A recipient of the Governor General of Canada Academic Gold Medal, Oriola was Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and Banting Postdoctoral Fellow (Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Science, University of British Columbia, Canada) prior to joining the University of Alberta faculty. Oriola’s approach to criminology and socio-legal studies focuses on social harm and thus transcends the strictures of the criminal law. His areas of interest include oil-related insurgencies, political kidnapping, use of force by police, ethics of research in conflict zones, and response of Western liberal democratic states to the threat of terrorism. Oriola’s works have been published in leading journals, such as Sociology, the British Journal of Criminology, Critical Studies on Terrorism, African Security and Canadian Ethnic Studies, among others.
'Oriola's text is a must read for the public. ...' African Studies Quarterly ’This book effectively combines the best of conceptual innovation with empirical rigour in providing a critical exposition of the dynamics and ramifications of oil-related violence, focusing on kidnapping in the Niger Delta. ...rich, refreshingly new and superb scholarship...a must-read for all those keen on gaining deeper insights into the complex political ecology of one of Africa's most sophisticated insurgencies...’ Cyril Obi, Social Science Research Council (SSRC), USA ’Criminal Resistance? uses kidnapping to unravel the complex interfaces between state character and politics, marginality, communalism, political geography and poverty to show how they underpin and explain the success of MEND. It is well written and makes contributions to the overall understanding of the motivation, leadership, organization, and engagement methods of insurgencies, and particularly the dynamics and trajectories of economic opportunism in conflicts in resource rich regions.' Augustine Ikelegbe, University of Benin, Nigeria
