Fabricating the Integrity of Gold in Refineries
Digital Visibility and Divisibility
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21264035 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Matthieu Bolay (0000-0003-0005-1302, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Pages | 85-104 |
| Publication date | 2021-06-30 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Swiss Journal of Sociocultural Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2813-5229 • E-ISSN: 2813-5237 |
| Publisher | University of Bern (PUBLISHER • CH) |
| DOI | 10.36950/tsantsa.2021.26.7124 |
| OpenAlex | W3176947002 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 13 |
Gold refineries are under pressure to revise their understanding of “integrity” beyond the physical cohesion of gold products, in order to integrate supply chain due diligence on human rights, labour conditions, and conflict financing as part of what can be coined the ethical integrity of gold. This article interrogates how processes of erasure, through material purification in the refining process, and disclosure, through certification against “responsible” standards, are reconciled within one expanded notion of integrity. By paying specific attention to processes of digitizing gold in this endeavour, it argues that, while limited in its role as a transparency device, digitization fosters new uses of gold, making it more liquid, more rapidly tradable, and potentially more speculative. These digital fetishes open new fields of value, not out of the gold itself but out of its traces, in which, paradoxically, artisanal ground producers selling physical gold remain poorly included so far
Business · Certification · Commerce · Computer security · Digitization · Due diligence · Oil refinery · Political science · Supply chain · Telecommunications · Waste management · Computer Science · Engineering · Law · Recycling and Waste Management Techniques · Finance · Marketing
How the Big 4 got big
Introduction
Capital
Notes on Materiality and Sociality
From ‘criminals of the earth’ to ‘stewards of the environment’
The politics of transparency and the calibration of knowledge in the digital age
Techno-economic Networks and Irreversibility
Due Diligence and "Reasonable Man," Offshore
Introduction
Why is gold valuable? Nature, social power and the value of things
The Anthropology of Mining
Speculative substance
Crypto-miners
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2022 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |