When miners become “foreigners”: Competing categorizations within gold mining spaces in Guinea

Drawing on ethnographic research and problem-centered interviews in Guinean mining areas, this paper presents a comparative reading of the conflicting conceptions of what constitutes a “mining community.” First, I explore how independent artisanal miners describe and identify their activity. The weight of autochthony conventions is discussed concerning their insertion both in the mining fields and in their living locations. Second, I focus the case study on how the corporate social responsibility (CSR) interventions toward the mining community, commissioned by a gold mining company in Guinea, are interpreted by the artisanal miners. The analysis of the deployed discourses and related interventions delineate what is defined as the mining community in CSR programs, and how these interventions shape new understandings of the company׳s territory among the miners.