The ubiquity of Royal Dutch Shell in the Netherlands as a case of banal petroculture

Abstract

In 1995 Michael Billig introduced the term ‘banal nationalism’ to refer to those representations and reproductions of the nation which are as ubiquitous as they tend to go unnoticed. I try to link this concept to ‘petroculture’ since that notion too refers to practices that are so pervasive in modern societies that we tend to overlook them. Case in point is Royal Dutch Shell, in the Netherlands often and tellingly abbreviated to ‘de Koninklijke’ (the Royal one). By making explicit what most readers and citizens overlook because Shell seems as ‘natural’ in Dutch culture as tulips, bicycles and windmills, this contribution tries to make clear how the everyday aspects of Dutch petroculture in tourism, literature, and advertising are linked with the elite practices of managers and politicians.