Towards a new theoretical framework for linkages from large-scale mining: bringing in power and the production of access and exclusion.

Resource optimists believe that large-scale mining is not only a powerful engine of economic growth, but can boost other productive sectors and thus contribute to broader social and economic development. In order to achieve this, companies and governments are now increasingly urged to promote local content policies and support local small and medium-sized enterprises especially in developing countries. Theoretically, this view is inspired by the academic literature on linkages and global commodity/value chains. What this literature fails to acknowledge, however, is that linkage development occurs in a local context that is highly politicized. Linkage development is thus affected by power, social relations and embeddedness in local institutions. In addition, it creates patterns of inclusion and exclusion, for example by giving certain groups of people access to employment and contracts, while excluding others. This is an important reason for focusing on locally-owned subcontracting companies and assessing their contribution to development. The proposed research provides this focus by theoretically extending and problematizing the notion of backward linkages. Methodologically it takes a novel approach by embedding quantitative surveys and descriptive statistics within qualitative field research focusing on a) power, social relations and embeddedness and b) patterns of access and exclusion in two selected mining concessions in Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Keywords:MINERALS, LINKAGE

Disciplines:Anthropology