IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v78y2022ics0301420722002276.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘Age is just a number’: Articulating the cultural dimension of child labour in Africa's small-scale mining sector

Author

Listed:
  • Gatsinzi, Angelique
  • Hilson, Gavin

Abstract

This paper engages critically with socio-cultural debates on child labour in sub-Saharan Africa, with a view toward articulating more comprehensively why young boys and girls pursue so-called ‘hazardous’ work in the region's artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector. Today, a discourse of ‘forced (child) labour’ propelled by images of, and anecdotal claims made about, the ASM sector is being widely promoted across sub-Saharan Africa, despite little being known about the social context within which the region's children live. Drawing on a qualitative case study of child labour in Ghana's ASM sector, it is argued that, at the community level, views on maturity and readiness to enter the labour market contrast sharply with the ideas underpinning the concept of ‘childhood’ at the heart of legal and policy frameworks for child protection and child labour eradication. Both have historical roots in Western elite and middle-class milieus.

Suggested Citation

  • Gatsinzi, Angelique & Hilson, Gavin, 2022. "‘Age is just a number’: Articulating the cultural dimension of child labour in Africa's small-scale mining sector," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:78:y:2022:i:c:s0301420722002276
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2022.102779
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420722002276
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resourpol.2022.102779?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. William E. Myers, 2001. "The Right Rights? Child Labor in a Globalizing World," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 575(1), pages 38-55, May.
    2. Basu, Kaushik & Van, Pham Hoang, 1998. "The Economics of Child Labor," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 412-427, June.
    3. Grimsrud, Bjorne, 2001. "What can be done about child labor ? - An overview of recent research and its implications for designing programs to reduce child labor," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 23030, The World Bank.
    4. Hilson, Gavin, 2012. "Family Hardship and Cultural Values: Child Labor in Malian Small-Scale Gold Mining Communities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1663-1674.
    5. Assefa Admassie, 2002. "Explaining the High Incidence of Child Labour in Sub–Saharan Africa," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 14(2), pages 251-275.
    6. Green, Maia & Hulme, David, 2005. "From correlates and characteristics to causes: thinking about poverty from a chronic poverty perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 867-879, June.
    7. Hilson, Gavin, 2008. "'A load too heavy': Critical reflections on the child labor problem in Africa's small-scale mining sector," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 1233-1245, November.
    8. 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.
    9. Hilson, Gavin & Pardie, Sandra, 2006. "Mercury: An agent of poverty in Ghana's small-scale gold-mining sector?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 106-116, June.
    10. Hilson, Gavin, 2002. "Harvesting mineral riches: 1000 years of gold mining in Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(1-2), pages 13-26.
    11. Author-Name: Jeffrey D. Sachs & John W. McArthur & Guido Schmidt-Traub & Margaret Kruk & Chandrika Bahadur & Michael Faye & Gordon McCord, 2004. "Ending Africa's Poverty Trap," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 35(1), pages 117-240.
    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. Opoku Adabor, 2025. "Empirical analysis of child labour, household poverty, and child health in Ghana," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 29-60, January.

    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. Poignant, Adrian, 2023. "Small-scale mining and agriculture: Evidence from northwestern Tanzania," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    2. Schure, Jolien & Ingram, Verina & Tieguhong, Julius Chupezi & Ndikumagenge, Cleto, 2011. "Is the god of diamonds alone? The role of institutions in artisanal mining in forest landscapes, Congo Basin," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 363-371.
    3. Burhan, Nik Ahmad Sufian & Sidek, Abdul Halim & Ibrahim, Saifuzzaman, 2016. "Eradicating the Crime of Child Labour in Africa: The Roles of Income, Schooling, Fertility, and Foreign Direct Investment," MPRA Paper 77250, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Delprato, Marcos & Akyeampong, Kwame, 2019. "The effect of working on students’ learning in Latin America: Evidence from the learning survey TERCE," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Opoku Adabor, 2025. "Empirical analysis of child labour, household poverty, and child health in Ghana," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 29-60, January.
    6. Amidu Kalokoh & Lada V. Kochtcheeva, 2022. "Governing the artisanal gold mining sector in the Mano River Union: A comparative study of Liberia and Sierra Leone," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(7), pages 1398-1413, October.
    7. Vimefall, Elin, 2011. "What determines which children work? Empirical evidence from Kenya," Working Papers 2011:3, Örebro University, School of Business.
    8. Chuhan-Pole,Punam & Dabalen,Andrew L. & Kotsadam,Andreas & Sanoh,Aly & Tolonen,Anja Karolina & Chuhan-Pole,Punam & Dabalen,Andrew L. & Kotsadam,Andreas & Sanoh,Aly & Tolonen,Anja Karolina, 2015. "The local socioeconomic effects of gold mining : evidence from Ghana," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7250, The World Bank.
    9. Sarbajit Chaudhuri & Jayanta Kumar Dwibedi, 2006. "Trade Liberalization in Agriculture in Developed Nations and Incidence of Child Labour in a Developing Economy," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 129-150, April.
    10. Kotsadam, Andreas & Tolonen, Anja, 2016. "African Mining, Gender, and Local Employment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 325-339.
    11. Brendan Skip Mark & Huei-Jyun Ye & Andrew Foote & Tiffani Crippin, 2021. "It’s a Hard-Knock Life: Child Labor Practices and Compliance with IMF Agreements," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-21, May.
    12. Lee, Jieun & Kim, Hyoungjong & Rhee, Dong-Eun, 2021. "No harmless child labor: The effect of child labor on academic achievement in francophone Western and Central Africa," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    13. Karina Acevedo González & Raúl Quejada Pérez & Martha Yánez Contreras, 2011. "Determinantes y consecuencias del trabajo infantil: un análisis de la literatura," Revista Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, June.
    14. Ernest Frimpong Asamoah & Lixiao Zhang & Sai Liang & Mingyue Pang & Shoujuan Tang, 2017. "Emergy Perspectives on the Environmental Performance and Sustainability of Small-Scale Gold Production Systems in Ghana," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-17, November.
    15. Santos, Rafael J., 2018. "Blessing and curse. The gold boom and local development in Colombia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 337-355.
    16. Zvarivadza, T., 2018. "Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining as a challenge and possible contributor to Sustainable Development," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 49-58.
    17. Fernando Morante-Carballo & Néstor Montalván-Burbano & Maribel Aguilar-Aguilar & Paúl Carrión-Mero, 2022. "A Bibliometric Analysis of the Scientific Research on Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-29, July.
    18. Takam Tiamgne, Xavier & Kalaba, Felix K. & Nyirenda, Vincent R., 2022. "Mining and socio-ecological systems: A systematic review of Sub-Saharan Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    19. Raymond Boadi Frempong & David Stadelmann, 2019. "The Effect of Food Price Changes on Child Labour: Evidence from Uganda," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(7), pages 1492-1507, July.
    20. Azariadis, Costas & Stachurski, John, 2005. "Poverty Traps," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 5, Elsevier.

    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:78:y:2022:i:c:s0301420722002276. 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.