Mining Boom, Labour Market Segmentation and Social Inequality in the Congolese Copperbelt

Bibliographic Data

ID3884445
AuthorsBenjamin Rubbers (0000-0002-2399-7937, Rubber Research Institute, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume51
Issue6
Pages1555-1578
Publication date2020-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDevelopment and Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0012-155X • E-ISSN: 1467-7660
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/dech.12531
PMID33281200
OpenAlexW2954721733
LanguageEN
Citations received36
References cited53

The study of the impacts of new mining projects in Africa is generally set in a normative debate about their possible contribution to development, which leads to a representation of African societies as divided between beneficiaries and victims of foreign investments. Based on research in the Congolese copperbelt, this article aims to examine in more detail the inequalities generated by the recent mining boom by taking the processes of labour market segmentation as a starting point. It shows that the labour market in the mining sector has progressively been organized along three intersecting lines that divide it: the first is between employment in industrial and artisanal mining companies, the second is between jobs for mining or subcontracting companies and the third is between jobs for expatriates, Congolese skilled workers and local unskilled workers. Far from simply reflecting existing social inequalities, the labour market has been actively involved in their creation, and its control has caused growing tensions in the Congolese copperbelt region. Although largely neglected in the literature on extractive industries, processes of labour market segmentation are key to making sense of the impacts of mining investments on the shape of societies in the global South

Boom · Economics · Inequality · Labour economics · Political science · Social inequality · Sociology · Geology · Hydropower, Displacement, Environmental Impact · Mathematics · Mining and Resource Management

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access