Sustainability Transformations in Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining: A Multi-Actor and Trans-Regional Perspective (ST-ASGM)

The objective of the ST-ASGM project is to consider whether a transformative approach towards sustainability can arise in Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM). Supporting the livelihoods of millions of people in low and lower middle income countries, ASGM has potential to contribute to sustainable development across the 17 SDGs. However, negative impacts generate critical barriers to sustainability. Anthropology is an entry point for an interdisciplinary approach to better conceptualize the dynamic, heterogeneous reality of ASGM and to identify potential for sustainable transformations in these shifting social settings. Capitalizing on existing ASGM partnerships, this research forms the basis for a trans-continental and trans-national project organized within 7 Work Packages for integrated comparative sustainability tracking between South America, West Africa and East Africa. To add value to global research efforts, 'Sustainability Conversations' will enhance impact, co-producing knowledge with mining actors to understand sustainability from miners' own perspectives. A strategic evidence-based summary 'Visions and Vistas for Sustainable Futures in ASGM' will contribute to policy influence. Giving creative expression to people's understandings of sustainable mining futures and building impact, is an exciting collaboration between African photographers from NUKU studios, Ghana, and the Museum of Ethnography of Material Culture, the Netherlands. This incorporates the co-production of visual images with African and Brazilian gold miners, as the basis of a travelling exhibition 'Moving Mine Matters' between West and East Africa, Brazil and Europe.

Our Theory of Change (TOC) challenges assumptions that Transformations to Sustainability in Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (T2S-ASGM) could emerge from a normative approach to sustainability that is top-down and technology-led, or that assumes spatial and social fixity within set governance hierarchies. Instead, we propose that change towards alternative mining futures, which includes potential for a transformative approach to sustainability, needs to evolve iteratively from regional and local contexts. Moreover, that it is vital to include co-production with mining actors, and to reflect cognisance of the mobile, heterogeneous, dynamic nature of ASGM. Therefore, the TOC incorporates the assumption that our Pathways to Impact require a three-pronged approach: firstly, excellent academic social science contributing new evidence on sustainability; secondly, engagement with government policy makers, representatives of civil society organisations, and market actors to influence policy decisions; and thirdly, public communication to stimulate debate on ASGM and sustainability in ways that profile the voices of miners and their communities, which are all-too-often absent from ASGM debate.

Central to evidence gathering, to policy dialogue, and to public communication, our methodology proposes "Sustainability Conversations", an ambitious programme co-produced with mining actors' - photographs, maps, geo-referenced spatial analysis, DIY aerial images, underground down-pit videos, alongside oral and textual accounts. These forms of representation will facilitate the process of composing the portrait of mining futures.