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- Convenors:
-
Katja Werthmann
(University of Leipzig)
Deborah Bryceson (University of Edinburgh)
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- Format:
- Panels
- Location:
- BS001
- Start time:
- 29 June, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/Zurich
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
This panel looks at urbanization processes in rural Africa that are connected with industrial or artisanal extractive activities. It invites contributions that focus on the socio-cultural aspects of urbanization.
Long Abstract:
In many African countries, large-scale industrial and small-scale artisanal mining activities are currently contributing to urbanization processes in rural areas. These processes include structural changes such as economic transformations and the construction of urban infrastructures but also the appropriation of urban lifestyles that are based on globally circulating ideas and imaginaries. These imaginaries include youth cultures, middle class aspirations or other ideas about urban ways of life. This panel looks at urbanization processes in rural Africa that are connected with industrial or artisanal extractive activities. It invites contributions that focus on the socio-cultural aspects of urbanization and on how these are interrelated with processes of socio-economic differentiation in the context of resource extraction.
Dans de nombreux pays africains, l'exploitation minière industrielle ou artisanale contribue actuellement aux processus d'urbanisation en zones rurales. Ces processus entrainent des changements structurels tels que des transformations économiques et la construction d'infrastructures urbaines ainsi que l'appropriation par les populations rurales de modes de vie urbains basés sur des idées et des imaginaires globalement répandus. Ces imaginaires se réfèrent notamment aux cultures de la jeunesse, aux aspirations des classes moyennes ou encore à d'autres idées associées aux modes de vie urbains. Ce panel traite des processus d'urbanisation liés à l'exploitation minière industrielle ou artisanale. Nous invitons des contributions sur les aspects socio-culturels de l'urbanisation et leurs interrelations avec des processus de différentiation socio-économique dans le cadre des activités extractives.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
The paper provides a review of the regulatory provisions for mitigating the impact of mining on urban and peri-urban communities in Zambia and Botswana. The south African legal framework is used as a benchmark.
Paper long abstract:
Mining has been a driver of growth in many African countries. However, it consumes large amounts of water and energy, and has significant amounts of waste. Consequently, it has significant impacts on the environment and the socio-economy of a country. This effect primarily falls on the urban and peri-urban areas of many African countries. The extent of these impacts can be mitigated partly through regulation to provide minimum standards for operation. Such provisions differ from country to country and the extent of regulation can have a significant effect on the welfare of the affected communities. Using document review complimented focus group discussions, this paper evaluates the role of mining regulation in reducing the impacts of mining activities on the welfare of the urban and peri-urban communities in Botswana and Zambia using South Africa as a benchmark. We find that the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) in South Africa provides a policy framework which ensures environmental protection as well as minimal impacts on communities that are in close proximity to mining activities. Such provisions however, are limited or non-existent in Botswana and Zambia, and any protection offered to communities are usually reliant on the Cooperate Social responsibility CSR) activities of the mines. Which in themselves are minimal and are viewed as benevolent acts of the mining companies. In view of this, regulatory reform is recommended to mitigate the impacts of mining on communities in Botswana and Zambia.
Paper short abstract:
Artisanal miners have catalysed large-scale 'direct urbanization' at artisanal mine sites-cum-small towns. Some successful artisanal miners thereafter are involved in 'indirect urbanization', as they make strategic house building investments in larger towns and cities and eventually settle there.
Paper long abstract:
During the past 30 years, Tanzania has experienced successive precious mineral rushes involving artisanal miners. Their settlement, livelihood and housing strategies have evolved amidst high mobility and pursuit of mineral wealth. Cumulatively, the spatial movement of artisanal miners and an associated following of economically motivated migrant service providers have catalysed large-scale "direct urbanisation by relatively makeshift accommodation. In this article, we draw attention to a subsequent 'indirect urbanization' phenomenon, whereby many successful artisanal miners and other entrepreneurial mining settlement residents make strategic house building investments in larger towns and cities. In anticipation of declining mineral yields and retirement from days of 'roughing it' in mining sites, they endeavour to channel savings into housing in more urbanized locations, aiming to diversify into profitable business activities, living a life with better physical and social amenities. This second-wave migration from mine sites encompasses more diverse destinations, particularly regional towns and cities, which accommodate their work and family life cycle needs and lifestyle preferences. Such mine-led direct and indirect urbanization processes arise from sequential migration decision-making. In this article, we interrogate mining settlement residents' locational choices on the basis of fieldwork survey findings from four artisanal gold and diamond mining settlements in Tanzania's mineral-rich regions of Geita, Mwanza and Shinyanga, and from in-depth interviews with miners-cum-entrepreneurs residing in Mwanza, Tanzania's second largest city, situated in the heart of Tanzania's gold fields.
Paper short abstract:
Using the case of Ikemeleng (which means stand on your feet), a settlement located just outside Rustenburg, this article explores the social transformation of informal settlements that have emerged on the margins of platinum mines in Rustenburg.
Paper long abstract:
The post-apartheid period in South Africa has witnessed an emergence of a large number of informal settlements in urban peripheries and on the margins of mines. These settlements have been characterised by violence, precarity and uncertainty. Consequently, residents of such communities often resort to insurgent practices in their quest to have access to basic amenities. Using the case of Ikemeleng (which means stand on your feet), a settlement located just outside Rustenburg, this article explores the social transformation of informal settlements that have emerged on the margins of platinum mines in Rustenburg. The article analyses the centrality of community protests in residents of informal settlements' everyday struggles to access basic amenities from municipalities and mining companies. It argues that the etymology of informal settlement names reflects the everyday challenges that residents of such settlements face. The article also analyses how 'service delivery' protests in informal settlements are entangled with the establishment and development of community leadership structures.
Paper short abstract:
Based on an eighteen months’ fieldwork in a malinké village in Guinea, this paper questions urbanization through the analysis of ephemeral spaces induced by gold mining mobility. Its purpose is to raise the issue of temporality of spaces in the processes of urbanization in African mining contexts.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper, I wish to question the distinction between urban and rural spaces through gold mining mobility in Upper Guinea. This work is based on an eighteen months' fieldwork in a malinké village, where an increasing number of inhabitants are working in the artisanal gold mines during the dry season. All inhabitants agree that this exploitation has considerably changed their social organization on different levels such as households' economy, gender relations, agricultural work and particularly youth mobility. I wish to question the evolutions that have occurred within the various forms of mining-related migrations, and the way in which they create and characterise spaces.
Gold exploitation in this region is known for centuries, but has considerably increased in the 2000's. This seasonal mobility led to the multiplication of temporary mining camps, depending on the exploitation of the surrounding fields. Indeed, when a mining area is first exploited, miners, but also traveling salespeople, come and settle in the camps during months to profit from the temporary crowds, contributing to the building of a relatively autonomous space and new forms of sociability. Furthermore, during the last few years, the introduction of metal detectors has given rise to more rapid and seemingly more chaotic migrations, implying continuous mobility instead of temporary installation in camps. This paper aims to show how these types of ephemeral spaces, closely linked to mobility, are directly questioning the definition of urban and rural spaces, by introducing the issue of temporality.
Paper short abstract:
From 2012 to 15 Palma changed from a small fisherman village to the operational centre of dozens oil&gas companies. In 2016 most of these companies left. This article aims to look at Palma’s inhabitants and how their rural life was shaken by an urbanization dream that had to be put on hold by now.
Paper long abstract:
Until last year Mozambique was achieving an impressive economic growth and considered as one of the fastest-growing economies worldwide. This growth was due to various factors, namely the investment in megaprojects in the country. Parallel to this economic growth the urban population has grown tenfold in the last decade, and several rural areas started their urbanization process. For instance, the region of Palma in the North East of the country can be held as example. In Palma, the discovery of one of the biggest unexplored gas reserves led to the fast evolving of the offshore Mozambique natural gas industry. Palma changed from a small fisherman village to the operational centre of dozens of oil&gas companies. A new city started to rise. Though, in 2016, the drop of the world commodities prices, coupled with a series of economic and political disturbances in Mozambique, resulted in an economic slowdown. Most of the oil&gas companies fled the country or left only essential staff behind. As a result, Palma stagnated. This article aims to look at Palma's inhabitants and how their rural life was shaken by an urbanization dream that had to be put on hold by now.