Revisiting the interconnections between research strategies and policy proposals: reflections from the artisanal and small-scale mining sector in Africa

Abstract

The objective of this article is to explore the interconnections between the choice of conceptual and methodological frameworks and resulting institutional reform and policy processes and to do so from a broad developmental perspective. It builds on the analytical framework developed in past research which examined the links between issues of regulation and legitimacy in the African mining sector. It draws attention to the structural relations of power institutionalised and reproduced by past regulatory frameworks, in order to analyse how this heritage has conditioned approaches to artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) and, in turn, policy proposals. The article uses ASM as an example to illustrate the need to rethink appropriate categories to capture shifting boundaries and to re-assess approaches as preconditions to renew institutional reform and policy processes from a country-specific and participative perspective.