Deborah Fahy Bryceson as a Reader at the Geographical and Earth Sciences School of the University of Glasgow.

Eleanor Fisher is Associate Professor in International Rural Development at the University of Reading.

Jesper Bosse Jønsson is Head of Development Planning and Environment for COWI Tanzania.

Rosemarie Mwaipopo is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

1. Mineralizing Africa and Artisanal Mining's Democratizing Influence, Deborah Fahy Bryceson and Jesper Bosse Jønsson Part I: Miners' Agency and Social Relations 2. Going for Gold: Miners' Mobility and Motivation, Jesper Bosse Jønsson and Deborah Fahy Bryceson 3. Pursuing an Artisanal Mining Career: Downward Success, Deborah Fahy Bryceson and Jesper Bosse Jønsson 4. Loosely-woven Love: Sexuality and Wifestyles in Gold-mining Settlements, Deborah Fahy Bryceson, Jesper Bosse Jønsson and Hannelore Verbrugge 5. The Creativity of Action: Property, Kin and the Social in African Artisanal Mining, Eleanor Fisher and Rose Mwaipopo 6. Beyond Belief: Mining, Magic and Murder in Sukumaland, Deborah Fahy Bryceson, Jesper Bosse Jønsson and Richard Sherrington Part II: Mining Communities, Organizational Constructs and Policy 7. Dealing with Ambiguity: Policy and Practice among Artisanal Gold Miners, Jesper Bosse Jønsson and Niels Fold 8. An Ethical Turn in African Mining: Voluntary Regulation through Fair Trade, Eleanor Fisher and John Childs 9. The Politics of Mining: Foreign Direct Investment, the State and Artisanal Mining in Tanzania, France Bourgouin 10. Ubeshi - Negotiating Co-existence: Artisanal and Large-scale in Diamond Mining, Rose Mwaipopo Part III: What Future for Artisanal Mining? 11. Artisanal Mining's Democratizing Directions and Deviations, Deborah Fahy Bryceson and Eleanor Fisher

After more than three decades of economic malaise, many African countries are experiencing an upsurge in their economic fortunes linked to the booming international market for minerals. Spurred by the shrinking viability of peasant agriculture, rural dwellers have been engaged in a massive search for alternative livelihoods, one of the most lucrative being artisanal mining.
While an expanding literature has documented the economic expansion of artisanal mining, this book is the first to probe its societal impact, demonstrating that artisanal mining has the potential to be far more democratic and emancipating than preceding modes.
Delineating the paradoxes of artisanal miners working alongside the expansion of large-scale mining investment in Africa, Mining and Social Transformation in Africa concentrates on the Tanzanian experience. Written by authors with fresh research insights, focus is placed on how artisanal mining is configured in relation to local, regional and national mining investments and social class differentiation. The work lives and associated lifestyles of miners and residents of mining settlements are brought to the fore, asking where this historical interlude is taking them and their communities in the future. The question of value transfers out of the artisanal mining sector, value capture by elites and changing configurations of gender, age and class differentiation, all arise.