Postgraduate Course: Governing Mineral Extraction in Africa (PGSP11281)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Postgrad (School of Social and Political Studies) |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | Reviewing statistics on Africa's declining share of world trade, Susan George remarked in 1993 "one can almost hear the sound of sub-Saharan Africa sliding off the world map." But in 2011 Africa seems to be back on the map. World market prices for "strategic minerals" are rising. Not only governments and multinationals based in western countries, but increasingly investors from China, India and other rising economic power-players are scrambling to secure their access to Africa's remaining mineral wealth and trying to forge personal and political alliances with the continent's leaders. Is Africa finding a new place for itself in the world economy, or simply back to its colonial role as provider of cheap raw materials for overseas manufacturing?
This course offers a critical introduction to current research on the historical, economic, social, political, environmental and geographical dimensions of mineral extraction in Africa. These topics are approached through theoretical literature and case studies of specific minerals, countries, enterprises and transport routes. The focus will not only be on official policy pronouncements by members of the elites who govern mineral extraction. We will explore the politics and conflicts surrounding mineral extraction in areas like the Niger Delta, Eastern DRC and the Zambian Copperbelt and critically examine consumer activism on 'blood diamonds' and other conflict minerals, the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility and other emerging attempts at corporate self-regulation like the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. The daily realities of small-scale and artisanal miners, smugglers, militias and other foot-soldiers of extraction will also emerge in ethnographic detail. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | No |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2011/12 Semester 1, Available to all students (SV1)
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WebCT enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| Central | Lecture | Seminar Room 6, Chrystal Macmillan Building | 1-11 | 09:00 - 10:50 | | | | |
| First Class |
First class information not currently available |
| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
The learning outcomes comply with the descriptions for level 11 of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF). More specifically, these include:
- A comprehensive overview of the diverse factors shaping mineral extraction and its governance in contemporary Africa
- A topically and geographically diverse range of detailed case studies organised around clearly defined sub-topics will give students a critical awareness of current issues in this field, but with enough specific facts to appreciate the wide diversity within it.
- Students are enabled to think critically and make informed interpretations of a wide range of past and current trends shaping fundamental realities in Africa and the world economy.
- Useful for students choosing to continue with academic work or pursue careers in a wide range of fields like development policy-making and practice in governmental or non-governmental organisations, consumer activism or indeed the worlds of international business and extractive industries.
- The compulsory preparation of group presentations will require students to self-organize in small teams to address a specific scientific and empirical question and finally communicate their results to their peers and the course convenors in a coherent manner and within limited time, making use of (audio-)visual technology.
- The compulsory essay will require students to practice their skills in scientific writing and literature-based research, to plan and execute what will amount to a significant project of research, and thereby to demonstrate creativity in the application of the knowledge they have gathered from the course. |
Assessment Information
| Students are assessed by an essay of 4000 words length. All essays are based on comparative work linking larger bodies of literature with case-study material. Students can either decide to suggest an essay topic within the overall course theme or be given one by the course convenors, who will be available for individual consultation. By week 6 students must submit (by e-mail to the convenor) a 500 word abstract for their essay containing a title, research question, short outline and preliminary literature list. All students will receive individual written feedback from the course convenor by week 8. |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Week 1: Introduction
Lecture: A critical introduction to the &«Resource Curse&ª thesis will be followed by a presentation on course practicalities, course topics and the distribution of student group presentations.
Ross, Michael (1999): The Political Economy of the Resource Curse. World Politics 51, pp.297-322
Basedau, Matthias (2009): Context Matters $ú Rethinking the Resource Curse in Sub-Saharan Africa. Global and Area Studies Working Papers, pp.1-46
Week 2: You Sign, We Dig. Mineral Extraction and Colonial State Formation in Africa
Lecture: Scrambling for Africa - Now and Then
Henning Melber and Roger Southall (2009): A New Scramble for Africa?, pp. XiX $ú 34 (Introduction and Chapter One)
Thomas Pakenham (1991): Leopold&©s Crusade. In: The Scramble for Africa, pages 11-23
Student presentation: It did not start with the White Guys: pre-colonial mineral extraction in Africa
Miller, Duncan, Nirdev Desai and Julia Lee-Thorp (2000): Indigenous Gold Mining in Southern Africa: A Review. Goodwin Series, Vol. 8, pp. 91-99
Week 3: Governing Extraction: Africa&©s Place in the 21st Century World Order
Lecture: Tax havens, transnational trade networks, organized crime and problems for academics to &«think outside the state&ª
Carolyn Nordstrom (2004): Invisible Empires, in: Bruce Kapferer (ed.) State, Sovereignty, War, pages 46 $ú 55
Commission on Capital Flight From Developing Countries (2009): Chapter 5: Tax Havens and Developing Countries, pp. 76-84
Student presentation: $ùThick&© versus $ùthin state&©: Mineral extraction, foreign investment and political order - the cases of oil in Angola and copper in 1960s-70s Zambia
James Ferguson (2006): Global Shadows, pages 194 - 210
Week 4: Out of Africa: Transnational Transport Routes of Extraction
Lecture: A journey from colonialism to the present and from the Copperbelt of Zambia to the Namibian harbour Walvis Bay
Zeller, Wolfgang (2009): Danger and Opportunity in Katima Mulilo: A Namibian Border Boomtown at Transnational Crossroads. Journal of Southern African Studies 35(1), pp. 133-154
Barry, Andrew (2006): Technological Zones. European Journal of Social Theory (9), pp. 239-253
Student presentation: The struggle for ownership by rural people living along the Chinese-built TAZARA railway line
Monson, Jamie (2006): Defending the People&©s Railway in the era of liberalization: TAZARA in Southern Tanzania, pages 113-130
Week 5: Let&©s Talk Oil
Lecture: &«Successful Failed States&ª: The pervasive impact of the petro-economy on state formation and politics in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea region
Michael Watts (2004): Resource Curse? Governmentality, Oil and Power in the Niger Delta, pages 50-80
Ricardo Soares de Oliviera (2007): Oil and Politics in the Gulf of Guinea, pages 1-62
Student presentation: Getting it Right This Time - Ghana and Uganda as emerging failed oil states or success stories in the making?
Van Gyampo, Ransford Edward (2011): Saving Ghana from Its Oil: A Critical Assessment of Preparations so Far Made. Africa Today 57(4), pp. 48-69
Gelb, Alan and Stephanie Majerowicz (2011): Oil for Uganda $ú or Ugandans? Can Cash Transfers Prevent the Resource Curse? Centre for Global Development Working Paper 261, pp. 1-26
Week 6: The Foot Soldiers of Extraction
Lecture: A bottom-up perspective on smuggling and the fine line between legality and licitness
Willem van Schendel and Itty Abraham (2005): Illicit Flows and Criminal Things, pages 1-37
Student presentation: A close-up of the daily struggles by small-scale gold and diamond miners against state regulation and market liberalization in Tanzania
Eleanor Fisher (2007): Occupying the margins: Labour Integration and Social Exclusion in Artisanal Mining in Tanzania, pages 735-760
Lange, Siri (2011): Gold and Governance: Legal Injustices and Lost Opportunities in Tanzania. African Affairs vol. 110 no. 439 pp. 233-253
Week 7: Blood Diamonds are Forever
Lecture: A short history of DeBeers and how the nasty side of bling bling led to the Kimberley Process
Ian Smillie (2005): Criminality and the Global Diamond Trade, in: Illicit Flows, pp. 177 $ú 200
Richard Schroeder (2009): Tanzanite as conflict gem: Certifying a secure commodity chain in Tanzania
Student Presentation: Blame it on Mugabe $ú Blood Diamond Extraction in Zimbabwe
Partnership Africa Canada (2010): Diamonds and Clubs. The Militarized Control of Diamonds and Power in Zimbabwe, pp.1.32
Week 8: Corporate Social Responsibility: Universal Solution or the Fox Guarding the Chicken Coop?
Lecture: A critical look at CSR and related initiatives of corporate self-governance: the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM)
Bracking, Sarah (2009): Hiding Conflict over Industry Returns: A Stakeholder Analysis of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. WPI Working Paper 91, pp. 1-28.
Blowfield, Michael and Jedrzej George Frynas (2005): Setting new agendas: Critical perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility in the developing world. International Affairs 81 (3), pp. 499-513
Student Presentation: CSR in action: The students can choose to study the CSR strategy - and compare it to the real actions - of any mineral extraction company operating anywhere in Africa.
No compulsory reading, but course convenor will assist the group with their literature search
Week 9: There Will Be Blood. Mineral Extraction and Conflict in Africa
Lecture: A hot debate: Whose greed and grievance?
Obi, Cyril (2010): Oil as the $ùcurse&© of conflict in Africa: peering through the smoke and mirrors. Review of African Political Economy 37 (126), pp. 483$ú495
Ross, Michael L. (2003): Oil, Drugs, and Diamonds: The Varying Roles of Natural Resources in Civil War. In: Karen Ballentine and Jake Sherman (eds.): The political economy of armed conflict; beyond greed and grievance. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, pp.47-72
Student presentation: Your gizmo&©s heart of darkness: War and mineral extraction in eastern DRC
Vlassenroot, Koen and Hans Romkema (2002): The Emergence of a New Order? Resources and War in Eastern Congo. Journal of Humanitarian Assistance.
Week 10: The Future is Here - China in Africa
Lecture: The rising superpower and the 21st century race for Africa&©s resources
Henning Melber (2007): The (not so) New Kid on the Block, in: China In Africa, pages 6 - 9
Ian Taylor (2007): Unpacking China&©s Resource Diplomacy in Africa, in: China In Africa, pages 10 $ú 25
Alden, de Oliveira and Large (eds.) 2008: Introduction. China Returns to Africa, pp. 1-15
Student presentation: A close-up look at the day-to-day realities in Angola and Namibia of the Chinese push for Africa
Manuel Ennes Ferreira (2008): China in Angola: Just a Passion for Oil?
Dobler, Gregor (2008): Solidarity, Xenophobia and the Regulation of Chinese businesses in Namibia. In China Returns to Africa, pp. 237-255 |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
The course runs for 10 weeks (2 hours per week). A weekly lecture (60 minutes, held by Wolfgang Zeller) is followed be a student group presentations (maximum length: 20 minutes; use of (audio-)visual media is obligatory) and discussion. Each week the overall course theme is addressed through a specific sub-topic, which is grounded in the compulsory readings for each session. The compulsory readings are all the texts listed in the course handbook under both $ùlecture&© and $ùstudent presentation&© for each week. Students are expected to read all the compulsory readings before each class. Full texts for all compulsory as well as additional readings and links to other materials for each week are contained in the weekly file folders on the WebCT page.
All students must participate in one group presentation to pass this course. The topics for student group presentations will be discussed and distributed in the first course session on September 19th. Students who cannot attend the first session must contact the course convenor. The course will make use of a WebCT page where students can access course information, literature, the weekly lectures and students&© presentations (after they have been given in class). |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Wolfgang Zeller
Tel: (0131 6)51 3134
Email: wolfgang.zeller@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Madina Howard
Tel: (0131 6)51 1659
Email: Madina.Howard@ed.ac.uk |
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