The dynamics of Zimbabwe's sand mining frontier

Abstract

Sand frontiers all over the world are expanding owing to the growing demand for construction sand. While several scholarly interventions are devoted to accounting for the extensive ecological damage and ways of improving sand governance, this article focuses on politicising these ecological transformations, in the process, understanding the nature of sand frontiers from the very local level. It does so by analysing placebased socio-political and economic dynamics of sand extraction in Zimbabwe's Eyrecourt Farm. The case study shows that local dynamics configure sand extraction spaces into politicised and ungovernable extractive geographies. These findings are not only representative of Zimbabwe's sand frontier. They also hold true in sand spaces linked to transnational networks of demand and supply. Overall, the study demonstrates the importance of local dynamics in understanding the emergence, development, and functioning of sand frontiers. The local dynamics unearthed here also help us break down the notion of a global sand frontier by positioning place-based dynamics as more important to understand.