Girls’ Work in Artisanal Cobalt Mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19217836 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Godelive Kusimwa Batano (0009-0007-4571-1681, University of Bayreuth, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0147-2011 • E-ISSN: 1936-4725 |
| Publisher | Springer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s12115-026-01217-w |
| OpenAlex | W7162489059 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
The energy transition is causing a sharp increase in the global demand for cobalt. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) holds more than half of the world’s cobalt reserves, with up to 30% of production coming from the artisanal sector. Whilst this sector provides a livelihood for tens of thousands of Congolese families, it is also a site of widespread child labour, which the ILO recognises as one of the worst forms of exploitation. Drawing on field data collected in Kolwezi (Lualaba Province), this study focuses on the experiences of girls in artisanal cobalt mining. This aspect is often overlooked in research that treats child labourers as a homogeneous group. Using intersectionality and feminist political ecology as analytical lenses, the study examines how the intersection of gender, age, and orphan status shapes children’s participation in mining. The findings reveal that girls combine paid and unpaid labour, moving between care work and mineral extraction in order to support their households. Although poverty drives both girls and boys to work, girls face additional constraints related to gendered expectations, school exclusion, and vulnerability to abuse. Situating these experiences within the political and ecological realities of extraction reveals that child labour is a gendered survival strategy embedded in structural inequality
Civil society · Democracy · Intersectionality · Livelihood · Political ecology · Politics · Poverty · Precarious work · Vulnerability (computing) · Work (physics) · Hydropower, Displacement, Environmental Impact · Mining and Resource Management · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare
Making Care Count
Not only a man's world
Green Extractivism’s New Frontiers
Small-scale mining and child labour in Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of Congo
Le « travail domestique »
Artisanal mining, conflict, and sexual violence in Eastern DRC
Cobalt mining and the corporate outsourcing of responsibility in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The economic, the political and the domestic
Le travail centré sur autrui et sa conceptualisation en Europe
Towards a life of poverty and uncertainty? The livelihood strategies of Gécamines workers after retrenchment in the DRC
A load too heavy’
Dominant Discourses, Debates and Silences on Child Labour in Africa and Asia
Are working children’s rights and child labour abolition complementary or opposing realms
Environment and Gender
Introducing new feminist political ecologies
Intersectionality on the go
Aperçus sur le travail des enfants
When Women Support the Patriarchal Family
Du care
Re-Thinking Intersectionality
Child Labour in African Artisanal Mining Communities
L'effondrement de la Générale des Carrières et des Mines
The Paradox of Child Labor and Anthropology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |