Exposing the real ‘social’ side of mining-related CSR in Sierra Leone

Abstract

This paper offers an ethnographic study of how CSR initiatives are implemented in communities that have been relocated for large-scale mining; how these initiatives are experienced locally; and how different people respond to the effects of these initiatives. Beyond documenting the limited benefits of CSR initiatives, this paper reveals how local people (re)shape the social outcomes of CSR in nuanced ways and challenges the ‘premise’ of modernity promises on which CSR sits. The findings of this study are based on 12 months ethnographic fieldwork conducted in three communities that have experienced mining-induced displacement and resettlement (MIDR), in the north of Sierra Leone. The study finds that the mining company implemented a number of CSR initiatives that threatened women's and men's lifeworlds in different ways. However, beyond this, the findings demonstrate how local people respond to –avoid, adapt, and resist - these CSR initiatives. These findings contribute to CSR discourse by going beyond a community level analysis, to show how different individuals experience CSR within mining communities in Sierra Leone. Second, how through their reactions to CSR initiatives, individuals within mining-affected communities, and women in particular, take social responsibility into their own hands, thus contributing to the feminisation of mining theory.