Mining Towns as Portals of Globalization:

The Arrival of the Global Aluminium Industry in West Africa

  • Johannes Knierzinger

Abstract

The article discusses the cultural, political, and technical dimension of West African bauxite mining and processing towns as portals of globalization. In the analysed company towns of Fria, Sangarédi, Kamsar (all in Guinea) and Edéa (Cameroon), mining and processing went along with the emergence of new systems of rule that () strongly depend on proit-maximizing investors; (2) rest on transnational corporate chains of command, and (3) install new “plutocratic orders” in remote regions, where little capital has circulated before the installation of the facilities. Previously existing social orders have strongly changed with the inlux of workers’ salaries and diverse measures of corporate social responsibility. Transnational mining companies and their managers on-site assume, in fact, political functions. The article questions the long-term societal impact of these portals of globalization.

Available Formats

Published

2017

How to Cite

Knierzinger, J. (2017). Mining Towns as Portals of Globalization:: The Arrival of the Global Aluminium Industry in West Africa. Comparativ, 27(3-4), 94–110. https://doi.org/10.26014/j.comp.2017.03/04.06