‘Once a miner, always a miner’: Poverty and livelihood diversification in Akwatia, Ghana
TL;DR: In this paper, an alternative viewpoint on why people choose to engage in artisanal mining for extended periods in sub-Saharan Africa is presented, drawing upon experiences from Akwatia, Ghana's epicentre of diamond production since the mid-1920s.
About: This article is published in Journal of Rural Studies.The article was published on 2010-07-01. It has received 165 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Artisanal mining.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: In this paper, a review reflects critically on why, despite its growing economic importance, artisanal and small-scale (ASM) occupies such a peripheral position on the economic development agenda of sub-Saharan Africa.
222 citations
Cites background from "‘Once a miner, always a miner’: Pov..."
...Countless studies (e.g. Banchirigah 2006; Spiegel, 2009; Hilson 2010; Banchirigah and Hilson, 2010) have made this link, pointing to how the structural adjustment programs and widespread neo-liberal economic reforms implemented across the region in the late-1970s and early-1980s led to the…...
[...]
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review the literature on the linkages between subsistence agriculture and artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing specifically on the economic impact of this symbiosis on the region's rural households and the policy treatment of this very important phenomenon.
147 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the legalist school (on informality) in part explains how governments across sub-Saharan Africa are creating bureaucracies which are stifling the formalization of artisanal and small-scale mining activities in the region.
147 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the problem of growing Chinese participation in Ghana's artisanal and small-scale mining sector is the latest expression of a much bigger problem: namely the sector's perpetual informality, brought about by an excessivelybureaucratic legalization process and failure, on the part of the government and donors, to deliver adequate and appropriate support to desperate operators.
147 citations
Cites background from "‘Once a miner, always a miner’: Pov..."
...…has shown that this is far from being the case (see Banchirigah 2006; Hilson 2009): that the region’s ASM communities are populated by an eclectic group of individuals, the vast majority of whom are driven to the sector because of hardship, not a desire to ‘get rich quick’ (Hilson, 2010)....
[...]
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make the case for a political ecology of the subsoil, arguing that subsoils resources have received comparatively little attention within the wider corpus of political ecological writing, and highlight the ways in which the extraction of mineral and hydrocarbon resources is constitutive of, and constituted by, wider capitalist political, economic and institutional arrangements.
135 citations
References
More filters
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce a special issue on the topic of income diversification and livelihoods in rural Africa: Cause and Consequence of change, where the authors concentrate on core conceptual issues that bedevil the literature on rural income diversity and the policy implications of the empirical evidence presented in this special issue.
1,726 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a review of evidence provides some surprising departures from traditional images of non-farm activities of rural households, and the most worrying finding was the poor distribution of nonfarm earnings in rural areas, despite the importance of these earnings to food security and farm investments.
1,020 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the economic restructuring of African smallholders' work lives has been accompanied by deep-rooted social change, where divisions of labor and decision-making power within peasant households have altered and wealth differentiation between households has deepened.
672 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors outline key theoretical components and practical concerns of a deagrarianization approach in sub-Saharan Africa and highlight the need for more focused study of the de-agriculturalization process and rural service sector development.
462 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the determinants and effects of household income diversification in three agroecological zones in Burkina Faso, Sahelian, Sudanian, and Guinean.
Abstract: Using four years of household data from three agroecological zones in Burkina Faso ‐ Sahelian, Sudanian, and Guinean ‐ the article examines the determinants and effects of household income diversification. Harvest shortfalls and terms of trade are found to drive diversification, but land constraints do not. Income diversification is associated with higher incomes and food consumption, and more stable income and consumption over years.
448 citations