Mining Encounters

Robert Jan Pijpers holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Oslo. His research focuses on the micro-politics of (large-scale) mining in West Africa. He is co-coordinator of both the AEGIS Collaborative Research Group 'Resource Extraction in Africa' and the EASA 'Anthropology of Mining' Network. He is the editor of Mining Encounters: Extractive Industries in an Overheated World (Pluto, 2018). Thomas Hylland Eriksen (1962 – 2024) was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo and former President of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA). He was among the most highly cited anthropologists of his generation, and his classic and accessible textbook Small Places, Large Issues remains a cornerstone in anthropology courses. His later books, including Overheating, tackled the important issue of climate change within the discipline.

• List of Figures and Maps Preface 1. Introduction: Negotiating the Multiple Edges of Mining Encounters - Robert Jan Pijpers and Thomas Hylland Eriksen2. From Allegiance to Connection: Structural Injustice, Scholarly Norms and the Anthropological Ethics of Mining Encounters - Alex Golub3. The ‘Shooting Fields of Porgera Joint Venture’: An Exploration of Corporate Power, Reputational Dynamics and Indigenous Agency - Catherine Coumans4. Rubbish at the Border: A Minefield of Conservation Politics at the Lawa River, Suriname/French Guiana - Sabine Luning and Marjo de Theije5. Territories of Contestation: Negotiating Mining Concessions in Sierra Leone - Robert Jan Pijpers6. Drilling Down Comparatively: Resource Histories, Subterranean Unconventional Gas and Diverging Social Responses in Two Australian Regions - Kim de Rijke7. Coal Trafficking: Reworking National Energy Security via Coal Transport at the North Karanpura Coalfields, India - Patrik Oskarsson and Nikas Kindo8. Diamonds and Plural Temporalities: Articulating Encounters in the Mines of Sierra Leone -Lorenzo D’Angelo9. Risky Encounters: The Ritual Prevention of Accidents in the Coal Mines of Kazakhstan - Eeva KeskülaNotes on Contributors Index

'By bringing contemporary research on resource extraction into conversations about the overheating of the planet, this accessible collection of essays examines the material, social and ethical consequences of our current habits of production and consumption'