IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v35y2023i7p1814-1832.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Contested concept, competing narratives, and coercive policy intervention: A study of government intervention in the illegal artisanal mining sector in Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Henry Adobor

Abstract

This research presents the findings of a study on the outcomes of policy intervention for eradicating illegal artisanal mining in Ghana. Using theories of everyday resistance and discourse, the study explored how actor motivations, choices, and behaviour affected the outcome of the government's attempt to eradicate illegal artisanal mining. Driven by the necessity for survival, illegal miners asserted their agency and developed strategies of covert resistance to undermine government intervention. Our data reveal a dynamic interplay between the government's use of discourse to frame illegal mining as a criminal activity and the miners' deployment of “weapons of the weak” and counter‐narratives to mount covert resistance to the government's attempt to stop illegal mining. Using cynicism, evasive action, and survival discourses as well as playing on the government's ambivalence and doubts about its commitment to a long‐drawn‐out fight, the resilience of miners seemed to have paid off in the end as the government failed to achieve its major objective.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:35:y:2023:i:7:p:1814-1832
    DOI: 10.1002/jid.3750
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.3750
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/jid.3750?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kwadwo Afriyie & John Kuumuori Ganle & Janet Afua Abrafi Adomako, 2016. "The good in evil: a discourse analysis of the industry in Ghana," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(4), pages 493-508, October.
    2. Nicolas Berman & Mathieu Couttenier & Dominic Rohner & Mathias Thoenig, 2017. "This Mine Is Mine! How Minerals Fuel Conflicts in Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1564-1610, June.
    3. 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.
    4. Carolyn Stauffer, 2017. "Infrapolitics of Defiance: Forms of Agency Exhibited by Homeless Survivors of Gender-Based Violence," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-11, July.
    5. 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.
    6. Bansah, K.J., 2019. "From diurnal to nocturnal: Surviving in a chaotic artisanal and small-scale mining sector," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. 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.
    8. Olsen, Tricia D., 2017. "Political Stakeholder Theory: The State, Legitimacy, and the Ethics of Microfinance in Emerging Economies," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(1), pages 71-98, January.
    9. Beyers, Jan & Arras, Sarah, 2020. "Who feeds information to regulators? Stakeholder diversity in European Union regulatory agency consultations," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(4), pages 573-598, December.
    10. 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.
    11. 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)

    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. Bester, Vidette & Groenewald, Liela, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility and artisanal mining: Towards a fresh South African perspective," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    2. Bürgi Bonanomi, Elisabeth & Elsig, Manfred & Espa, Ilaria, 2015. "The Commodity Sector and Related Governance Challenges from a Sustainable Development Perspective: The Example of Switzerland Current Research Gaps," Papers 865, World Trade Institute.
    3. Bester, Vidette, 2022. "A corporate social responsibility conceptual framework to address artisanal gold mining in South Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. 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).
    5. Maclin, Beth J. & Kelly, Jocelyn T.D. & Perks, Rachel & Vinck, Patrick & Pham, Phuong, 2017. "Moving to the mines: Motivations of men and women for migration to artisanal and small-scale mining sites in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 115-122.
    6. 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).
    7. 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).
    8. 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.
    9. Lewkowicz, Jacek & Woźniak, Michał & Wrzesiński, Michał, 2022. "COVID-19 and erosion of democracy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    10. Jørgen Juel Andersen & Frode Martin Nordvik & Andrea Tesei, 2022. "Oil Price Shocks and Conflict Escalation: Onshore versus Offshore," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 66(2), pages 327-356, February.
    11. Ciccone, Antonio, 2018. "International Commodity Prices and Civil War Outbreak: New Evidence for Sub-Saharan Africa and Beyond," CEPR Discussion Papers 12625, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Claudia Custodio & Bernardo Mendes & Diogo Mendes, 2021. "Firm responses to violent conflicts," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp2106, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.
    13. Marco Manacorda & Andrea Tesei, 2020. "Liberation Technology: Mobile Phones and Political Mobilization in Africa," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 533-567, March.
    14. Francesco Amodio & Leonardo Baccini & Michele Di Maio, 2021. "Security, Trade, and Political Violence," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 1-37.
    15. Fetzer, Thiemo & Vanden Eynde, Oliver & Wright, Austin L, 2024. "Team production on the battlefield: Evidence from NATO in Afghanistan," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1500, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    16. Marco Alfano & Joseph-Simon Gorlach, 2019. "Terrorism, education and the role of expectations: evidence from al-Shabaab attacks in Kenya," Working Papers 1904, University of Strathclyde Business School, Department of Economics.
    17. Nicolas Berman & Lorenzo Rotunno & Roberta Ziparo, 2020. "Sweet child of mine: Parental income, child health and inequality," AMSE Working Papers 2005, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France, revised Dec 2022.
    18. Stoop, Nik & Verpoorten, Marijke & van der Windt, Peter, 2019. "Artisanal or industrial conflict minerals? Evidence from Eastern Congo," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 660-674.
    19. Ralph de Haas & Steven Poelhekke, 2016. "Mining Matters: Natural Resource Extraction and Local Business Constraints," CESifo Working Paper Series 6198, CESifo.
    20. Thiemo Fetzer & Pedro C. L. Souza & Oliver Vanden Eynde & Austin L. Wright, 2021. "Security Transitions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(7), pages 2275-2308, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:jintdv:v:35:y:2023:i:7:p:1814-1832. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

    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.