IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v34y2009i1-2p57-63.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

'Soon there will be no-one left to take the corpses to the morgue': Accumulation and abjection in Ghana's mining communities

Author

Listed:
  • Bush, Ray

Abstract

This article argues that Ghana's galamsey or artisanal miners offer a strategy of resistance to state mining policy and foreign company operations. Galamsey provide significant injections of sustained income to local communities and clamping down on their activities is at best short sighted and at worst a strategy that promotes community abjection. The article reviews the experience of two communities in the Wassa West District of Ghana and especially the changing livelihoods of female headed households since the Government of Ghana has restricted the activities of the galamsey.

Suggested Citation

  • Bush, Ray, 2009. "'Soon there will be no-one left to take the corpses to the morgue': Accumulation and abjection in Ghana's mining communities," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-2), pages 57-63.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:34:y:2009:i:1-2:p:57-63
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4207(08)00067-6
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Banchirigah, Sadia Mohammed, 2008. "Challenges with eradicating illegal mining in Ghana: A perspective from the grassroots," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 29-38, March.
    2. Gavin Hilson & Clive Potter, 2003. "Why Is Illegal Gold Mining Activity so Ubiquitous in Rural Ghana?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 15(2‐3), pages 237-270.
    3. Yakovleva, Natalia, 2007. "Perspectives on female participation in artisanal and small-scale mining: A case study of Birim North District of Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-2), pages 29-41.
    4. Gavin Hilson & Sadia Mohammed Banchirigah, 2009. "Are Alternative Livelihood Projects Alleviating Poverty in Mining Communities? Experiences from Ghana," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(2), pages 172-196.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Slack, Keith, 2012. "Mission impossible?: Adopting a CSR-based business model for extractive industries in developing countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 179-184.
    2. Mtero, Farai, 2017. "Rural livelihoods, large-scale mining and agrarian change in Mapela, Limpopo, South Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 190-200.
    3. Gabriel Botchwey & Michael Nest & Riccardo D'Emidio, 2023. "Working with legal small‐scale miners: Implications for development," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(6), pages 1239-1253, August.
    4. Radley, Ben, 2020. "A distributional analysis of artisanal and industrial wage levels and expenditure in the Congolese mining sector," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 106512, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Yakovleva, Natalia & Vazquez-Brust, Diego Alfonso, 2018. "Multinational mining enterprises and artisanal small-scale miners: From confrontation to cooperation," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 52-62.
    6. Henry Adobor, 2023. "Contested concept, competing narratives, and coercive policy intervention: A study of government intervention in the illegal artisanal mining sector in Ghana," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(7), pages 1814-1832, October.
    7. Bester, Vidette, 2022. "A corporate social responsibility conceptual framework to address artisanal gold mining in South Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. Van Bockstael, Steven, 2019. "Land grabbing “from below”? Illicit artisanal gold mining and access to land in post-conflict Côte d’Ivoire," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 904-914.
    9. Frederick Armah & Isaac Luginaah & Justice Odoi, 2013. "Artisanal small-scale mining and mercury pollution in Ghana: a critical examination of a messy minerals and gold mining policy," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 3(4), pages 381-390, December.
    10. Kilosho Buraye, Janvier & Stoop, Nik & Verpoorten, Marijke, 2017. "Defusing the social minefield of gold sites in Kamituga, South Kivu. From legal pluralism to the re-making of institutions?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 356-368.
    11. Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai, 2017. "Competitive clientelism and the political economy of mining in Ghana," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-078-17, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    12. Amoako, Kwame Oduro & Lord, Beverley R. & Dixon, Keith, 2021. "Narrative accounting for mining in Ghana: An old defence against a new threat?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    13. Eduful, Michael & Alsharif, Kamal & Eduful, Alexander & Acheampong, Michael & Eduful, Joyce & Mazumder, Lubana, 2020. "The Illegal Artisanal and Small-scale mining (Galamsey) ‘Menace’ in Ghana: Is Military-Style Approach the Answer?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    14. Geenen, Sara, 2014. "Dispossession, displacement and resistance: Artisanal miners in a gold concession in South-Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 90-99.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mark L. Wilson & Elisha Renne & Carla Roncoli & Peter Agyei-Baffour & Emmanuel Yamoah Tenkorang, 2015. "Integrated Assessment of Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in Ghana — Part 3: Social Sciences and Economics," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-24, July.
    2. Werthmann, Katja, 2009. "Working in a boom-town: Female perspectives on gold-mining in Burkina Faso," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-2), pages 18-23.
    3. Hilson, Gavin, 2009. "Small-scale mining, poverty and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa: An overview," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-2), pages 1-5.
    4. Katherine C. Malpeli & Peter G. Chirico, 2013. "The influence of geomorphology on the role of women at artisanal and small‐scale mine sites," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 37(1), pages 43-54, February.
    5. Aubynn, Anthony, 2009. "Sustainable solution or a marriage of inconvenience? The coexistence of large-scale mining and artisanal and small-scale mining on the Abosso Goldfields concession in Western Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-2), pages 64-70.
    6. Bashwira, Marie-Rose & Cuvelier, Jeroen & Hilhorst, Dorothea & van der Haar, Gemma, 2014. "Not only a man's world: Women's involvement in artisanal mining in eastern DRC," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 109-116.
    7. Hirons, Mark, 2014. "Shifting sand, shifting livelihoods? Reflections on a coastal gold rush in Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 83-89.
    8. Eduful, Michael & Alsharif, Kamal & Eduful, Alexander & Acheampong, Michael & Eduful, Joyce & Mazumder, Lubana, 2020. "The Illegal Artisanal and Small-scale mining (Galamsey) ‘Menace’ in Ghana: Is Military-Style Approach the Answer?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    9. Rodriguez, Mauricio & Smulders, Sjak, 2022. "Dynamic resource management under weak property rights: A tale of thieves and trespassers," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    10. Lawer, Eric Tamatey & Lukas, Martin C. & Jørgensen, Stig H., 2017. "The neglected role of local institutions in the ‘resource curse’ debate. Limestone mining in the Krobo region of Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 43-52.
    11. James Boafo & Sebastian Angzoorokuu Paalo & Senyo Dotsey, 2019. "Illicit Chinese Small-Scale Mining in Ghana: Beyond Institutional Weakness?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-18, October.
    12. Arthur-Holmes, Francis & Ofosu, George, 2024. "Rethinking state-led formalisation of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM): Towards mining licence categorisation, women empowerment and environmental sustainability," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    13. Hilson, Gavin & Hilson, Abigail & Maconachie, Roy, 2018. "Opportunity or necessity? Conceptualizing entrepreneurship at African small-scale mines," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 286-302.
    14. Saldarriaga-Isaza, Adrián & Villegas-Palacio, Clara & Arango, Santiago, 2013. "The public good dilemma of a non-renewable common resource: A look at the facts of artisanal gold mining," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 224-232.
    15. Wireko-Gyebi, Rejoice Selorm & Asibey, Michael Osei & Baah-Ennumh, Theresa Yaaba, 2022. "Planning for the effective and sustainable management of Ghana’s artisanal small-scale gold mining industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    16. Achina-Obeng, Rebecca & Aram, Simon Appah, 2022. "Informal artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) in Ghana: Assessing environmental impacts, reasons for engagement, and mitigation strategies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    17. Oppong Ntiri, Richard & Appiah-Boateng, Sabina & Koomson, Frederick, 2023. "Beyond the numbers: Group formation in the artisanal and small-scale mining in Ghana," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    18. Katz-Lavigne, Sarah, 2020. "Distributional impact of corporate extraction and (un)authorised clandestine mining at and around large-scale copper- and cobalt-mining sites in DR Congo," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    19. Mabe, Franklin N. & Owusu-Sekyere, Ebenezer & Adeosun, Oluyemi Theophilus, 2021. "Livelihood coping strategies among displaced small scale miners in Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    20. Hilson, Gavin & Ackah-Baidoo, Abigail, 2011. "Can Microcredit Services Alleviate Hardship in African Small-scale Mining Communities?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 1191-1203, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:34:y:2009:i:1-2:p:57-63. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30467 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.