Working Paper 36

Title
Goldmining communities in Northern Benin as semi-autonomous social fields

Author
Tilo Grätz

Department
Department ‘Integration and Conflict’

Year of publication
2002

Number of pages
20

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Working Paper 36

Abstract
The paper addresses the plural social and juridical context of non-industrial gold mining in regions of immigration in West Africa today. A case study from Benin has been chosen as empirical background. The text deals with the development of specific norms in that field, “rules of the game” as regards access to gold deposits, the larger social setting of the mining communities and institutions of conflict settlement. Finally, the shifting relationship of gold miners to the central state and its contradictory politics will be explored.