Resource Politics and Advocacy Struggles in Zimbabwe: Encountering Power at Multiple Scales

Sustainability Research Institute, Centre for Global Development and Centre for African Studies (LUCAS) Seminar Series

Invite you to the third in the series on The Environment, Human Rights and Development

Resource Politics and Advocacy Struggles in Zimbabwe: Encountering Power at Multiple Scales

Sam Spiegel, Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh
As the mining sector in Africa continues to expand, questions are being asked about how power relations are changing in mining economies as well as the extent to which global discourses engage with local advocacies on the ground. This talk will discuss global representations of power and politics in Zimbabwe's gold and diamond mining sectors. Drawing on the author's fieldwork in Zimbabwe between 2005 and 2014, it will explore gaps between the analytic focus points of global mining sector analysts and the advocacies of artisanal and small-scale miners' associations, as economic struggles have driven large numbers of people to depend on rudimentary mineral extraction. The talk with examine how global discourses of modern order and regulation have been politically instrumentalised and how associations of artisanal and small-scale miners have sought to contest controversial national policies and rebuild livelihoods in the aftermath of widespread police crackdowns, with uneven results.

The event will be followed by a drinks reception.

All Welcome!

Venue: School of Earth and Environment, Seminar Room 8.119

Date: 30 November 2015

Time: 16.00-17.30

Directions: The School of Earth and Environment is building 84. Enter into the front of the building and walk past reception, through the doors and room 8.119 is on the left.