1st Edition

Mining and Social Transformation in Africa Mineralizing and Democratizing Trends in Artisanal Production

    232 Pages
    by Routledge

    232 Pages 20 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    After more than three decades of economic malaise, many African countries are experiencing an upsurge in their economic fortunes linked to the booming international market for minerals. Spurred by the shrinking viability of peasant agriculture, rural dwellers have been engaged in a massive search for alternative livelihoods, one of the most lucrative being artisanal mining.

    While a burgeoning literature is acknowledging the spread of artisanal mining, this book is the first to probe its societal impact and potential for extending economic opportunity and participatory forms of democracy.

    Delineating the paradoxes of artisanal miners working alongside the expansion of large-scale mining investment in Africa, Mining and Social Transformation in Africa concentrates on the Tanzanian experience. Written by authors with fresh research insights, focus is placed on how artisanal mining is configured in relation to local, regional and national mining investments and social class differentiation. The work lives and associated lifestyles of miners and residents of mining settlements are brought to the fore, asking where this historical interlude is taking them and their communities in the future. The question of value transfers out of the artisanal mining sector, value capture by elites and changing configurations of gender, age and class differentiation, all arise.

    1. Introduction: Africa's New Mining Era and the Rise of an Artisanal Mining Social Practice  Part 1: Miners' Agency and Social Relations  2. Going for Gold: Miners' Mobility and Motivation  3. Pursuing an Artisanal Mining Career: Downwards to Success  4. Loosely-woven Love: Sexuality and Wifestyles in Gold-Mining Settlements  5. Beyond Belief: Mining, Magic and Murder in Sukumaland  Part 2: Mining Communities and Social Organizational Constructs  6. Property, Kin and the Social in Neoliberal Artisanal Mining  7. Ubeshi: Negotiating Artisanal and Large-scale Co-existence in Diamond Mining  Part 3: Environmental, Trade, Regulatory and Development Policy Issues  8. Hazards of the Trade: Occupational and Environmental Adversities of Artisanal Mining  9. Handling Uncertainty: Policy and Practice Among Artisanal Gold Miners  10. The Ethical Turn in Artisanal Mining Policy: Issues and Implications for Fairtrade Gold  11. The Politics of Foreign Direct Investment: What Future for Artisanal Mining?  Part 4: Conclusion  12. Artisanal Miners as a New Social Force

    Biography

    Deborah Fahy Bryceson is a Reader at the Geographical and Earth Sciences School of the University of Glasgow.

    Eleanor Fisher is Senior Lecturer in International Development at Swansea University.

    Jesper Bosse Jønsson works as Research Fellow at the School of Geographical and Earth Sciences at the University of Glasgow.

    Rosemarie Mwaipopo is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.