The Moral Economies of Mining: Materiality and Subsistence Ethics in the Extractive Boom

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Moral Economies of Mining: Materiality and Subsistence Ethics in the Extractive Boom

Journal: The Extractive Industries and Society

Publisher: Elsevier

Submission Deadline: 30 October 2026

Introduction

The notion of moral economy offers a lens through which mining conflicts can be understood — not merely as struggles over access to resources or compensation for harm — but as disputes over what is considered fair, legitimate, or acceptable within an economic and political order. This perspective reveals how extractivist regimes of valuation — financial or land values — are challenged by or blend with alternative systems of worth including sacrality, sustainability, and labor.

This concept helps explain why some mining projects gain social acceptance while others provoke fierce resistance — depending on whether they clash with locally embedded norms of justice and reciprocity. In a context of escalating tensions linked to the proliferation of extractive projects — whether driven by large corporations in the name of the "energy transition" or by artisanal miners — the concept of moral economy provides a valuable lens for understanding these tensions through the values and practices of the groups involved — including states, companies, communities, cooperatives, and opposition movements.

Scope & Significance

This Special Issue accepts research on moral economy in mining contexts based on a diversity of approaches — ethnographic, comparative, and global research. Through ethnographic, historical, or comparative approaches, this relational dimension of moral economies seeks to connect spaces and levels of analysis that are central to the study of mining — including communities, states, corporations, and opposition movements.

The aim is to move beyond academic controversies to examine how mining activity is carried out within societies and what it does to them — in terms of contested values, perceptions of justice, and ways of understanding relations to the world.

Two Core Research Priorities

Priority 1 — The Ethics of Subsistence as a Requirement for Social and Environmental Justice

This axis situates the research in a relational perspective — exploring the competing moral economies at play within mining activity. Case studies may focus on mobilizations supporting or opposing mining, processes of formalization, and the roles of intermediaries.

Priority 2 — Moral Economies of Mining Materiality

This axis encourages detailed case studies of specific minerals and their associated technical systems — machinery, infrastructures, and capacities — to investigate how the materiality of a given mineral shapes practices, affects local populations, helps define norms, values, and obligations, influences forms of contestation, and shapes representations and discourses that underpin processes of legitimation.

List of Topic Areas

Manuscripts are invited on themes including, but not limited to:

1. Moral economy frameworks applied to mining conflicts and social acceptance

2. Ethics of subsistence — justice, reciprocity, and local norms in extractive contexts

3. Competing moral economies — financial valuation vs. alternative systems of worth

4. Mining materiality — how specific minerals shape practices, norms, and contestation

5. Social and environmental justice in extractive industries

6. Artisanal and small-scale mining — formalization, legitimacy, and community relations

7. Large-scale corporate mining and the energy transition — social acceptance and resistance

8. State, company, community, and cooperative relations in mining governance

9. Intermediaries and brokers in mining mobilizations

10. Historical and comparative perspectives on mining moral economies

11. Ethnographic approaches to mining communities and extractive conflicts

12. Representations, discourses, and legitimation in mining contexts

13. Opposition movements — values, perceptions of justice, and collective action

14. Mining and sacrality — cultural and spiritual dimensions of resource extraction

15. Global extractive boom — cross-regional and comparative mining studies

Guest Editors

Dr. Diane Robert Institut de Recherche pour le Développement — UMR SENS, France Email: diane-robert@live.fr

Dr. Vincent Ortiz Institut de Recherche pour le Développement — UMR SENS, France Email: vincent.ortiz@sciencespo.fr

Dr. Claude Le Gouill Institut de Recherche pour le Développement — UMR SENS, France Email: claude.legouill@ird.fr

Deadlines

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 30 October 2026

For more details about the Special Issue, visit: https://ecoboom.hypotheses.org/3673

Submission Guidelines

All submissions must be made via The Extractive Industries and Society (EXIS) official online submission system.

Authors should indicate that the paper is submitted for consideration for publication in this Special Issue. When choosing the Manuscript Article Type during the submission procedure, select:

"VSI: Moral Economies of Mining"

Otherwise your submission will be handled as a regular manuscript.

All submissions must be original and must not be under review elsewhere at the time of submission.

For author guidelines, visit the official The Extractive Industries and Society journal page on the Elsevier ScienceDirect website.

About the Journal

The Extractive Industries and Society, published by Elsevier, is a leading international peer-reviewed journal with a CiteScore of 7.7 and Impact Factor of 4.3. It is dedicated to advancing interdisciplinary research on the social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental dimensions of extractive industries worldwide — providing a global platform for scholars and practitioners exploring mining, oil, and gas in diverse regional and institutional contexts.

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