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2021
Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Research Unit | University of Reading, United Kingdom | Leiden University, The Netherlands | University of Reading, United Kingdom | NAP Mineração, University of São Paulo, Brazil | Institute for Social Research in Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso | NEPAM, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil | Leiden University, The Netherlands | NEPAM, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil | NEPAM, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil; Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Institute for Social Research in Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso | NEPAM, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil | University of Hamburg, Germany | Nuku Studios, Accra, Ghana | NAP Mineração, University of São Paulo, Brazil; Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Institute for Social Research in Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands | NAP Mineração, University of São Paulo, Brazil | Environmental Women in Action for Development, Entebbe, Uganda | Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda | Switzerland

Growth strategies in mining regions promote gold extraction based on industrial mining, associating Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) with persistent informality. Against this background, we consider how to approach transformations to sustainability in ASGM. Acknowledging how problematic this topic is for sustainability debates, given how ASGM is associated with a host of environmental and social problems, we argue that a justice lens demands we confront such challenges within the global politics of sustainability. This leads us to review advances in the study of ASGM, linked to debates on extractivism, resource materialities, and informality. We use the notion of gold lifeways to capture how the matter of mining shapes different worlds of extraction. We argue that consideration of the potential for transformations to sustainability needs to be grounded within the realities of ASGM. This necessitates giving value to miners’ knowledge(s), perspectives and interests, while recognising the plurality of mining futures. Nevertheless, we conclude that between the immediacy of precarious work and the structural barriers to change in ASGM, the challenges for transformation cannot be underestimated.

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