Dr. Robert Pijpers

• Political Economy
• Environment
• Natural resource extraction (industrial and small-scale)
• Land use, land governance and landed power relations
• Re)configurations of power
• Development
• Temporality, Future, Uncertainty
• Sustainability
• Africa, with a focus on Sierra Leone and Ghana

Projects

2018-2021: Small-scale gold mining, mobility and sustainable futures in Ghana

Postdoc project, University of Hamburg, part of the international NORFACE/BELMONT Forum funded project ´Gold Matters: Sustainability Transformations in Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining: A Multi-Actor and Trans-Regional Perspective.

2012-2018: Accelerated change and uncertainty: the micro-politics of large-scale mining in Sierra Leone

PhD project, University of Oslo, part of Prof. dr. Eriksen ERC project ´Overheating: the three crises of globalisation

2012-2011: Crops & Carats: land use, competition and co-habitation in Ghana’s mining-farming nexus

Post-MA project, Leiden University, funded by Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds

2009-2010: Rural livelihoods/survival strategies and artisanal diamond mining in Sierra Leone

MA-project, Leiden University

For details please contact Dr. Pijpers.

PhD Dissertation – 1

Pijpers, R.J. (2018). Navigating Uncertainty: Large-Scale Mining and Micro-Politics in Sierra
Leone. Reprosentralen, University of Oslo. ISBN: 1564-3991 / No. 693

Edited books and special issues – 3

D’Angelo, L. and Pijpers, R.J. (eds, forthcoming 2021, contract signed). The Anthropology of
Resource Extraction. London and New York: Routledge.

Pijpers, R.J. and Eriksen, T.H. (eds, 2018) Mining Encounters: Extractive Industries in an
Overheated World. London: Pluto Press.

D’Angelo, L. and Pijpers, R.J. (eds, 2018). Mining Temporalities: Extractive Industries and
the Politics of Time. The Extractive Industries and Society 5 (2): 215-268.

Complete List of Publications

Since 2018
Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Hamburg

2017
Lecturer, Institute of Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology (CA&DS),Leiden University, The Netherlands

2012- 2018
PhD Researcher, Department of Social Anthropology (SAI), University of Oslo, Norway. Dissertation ‘Navigating Uncertainty: Large-Scale Mining and Micro-Politics in Sierra Leone’ focuses on social, environmental, economic and political changes in (rural) Sierra Leone in the context of large-scale mining

Since 2016
Co-founder and co-convenor of the AEGIS Collaborative Research Group ́Resource Extraction in Africa ́.

Since 2016
Founder, moderator and editor of ́Resource Worlds: Social Explorations of Resource Extraction ́. The website resourceworlds.org is established as a platformto disseminate social science research on resource extraction to a wider public (currently under maintenance).

2016
Visiting Doctoral Researcher, German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg, Germany

2015-2020
Co-founder and co-convenor of EASA `Anthropology of Mining` Network

2015
Visiting PhD Research Fellow, Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden

2011-2012
Teaching Assistant, Institute of Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology (CA&DS), Leiden University, The Netherlands

2011-2012
Researcher, ActionAid, The Netherlands

2011
Trainee, SOMO 'Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations'. The Netherlands.

2009–2010
MA Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology, Leiden University, The Netherlands

2005–2009
BA Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology (Major) and Social &Organizational Psychology (Minor), Leiden University, The Netherlands

Organisation

2020    

• International multi-stakeholder workshop ‘Mapping and visualising spatiality and sustainability in ASGM’ (Bolgatanga, Ghana; primary responsibility)
• International NORFACE/BELMONT Forum Transformations 2 Sustainability 2018-2021 Programme mid-term conference (Delft, The Netherlands, member of organising committee)
  2018   
• International workshop ‘Laboured Landscapes: Legacies and Futures of Extraction in Africa’. Workshop of the AEGIS CRG  ́Resource Extraction in Africa ́ (Leiden University, The Netherlands, with dr. Sabine Luning)
• Panel ‘Mining Mobility: the movement of people and expertise in the context of extractive projects’ at biennial EASA Conference (Stockholm, Sweden, with dr. Nikkie Wiegink)

2017    

• Two-day international workshop on ‘Mining Temporalities’ (Utrecht University, The Netherlands, with dr. Lorenzo D’Angelo)
  2016   
• Panel ‘Mining Temporalities: ideas, experiences and politics of time in extractive industries’ at biennial EASA Conference (Milan, Italy, with dr. Lorenzo D’Angelo)

2015    

• Organisation of a three-day international workshop ‘Mining Encounters’, (University of Oslo, Norway, primary responsibility)
  2008
• International conference 'Anthropology and controversy: rethinking the position of the anthropologist through contested research' (Leiden University, The Netherlands, member of organizing committee)

Presentation

2019    

• Accra, Ghana - Crossing Boundaries: exchanging ideas on methodologies for extractive industries Research (University of Ghana)
• Leiden, The Netherlands - Global Earth Matters conference (Leiden University and the National Museum of Ethnology)
• Luzern, Switzerland - Ethnologisches Seminar, University of Luzern
• Norwich, UK - ASA UK Annual Conference
  2018   
• Antwerp, Belgium – workshop on gold production networks (Institute of Development Policy)
• Hamburg, Germany – Institutskolloquium Department of Social Anthropology
• Stockholm, Sweden – EASA biennial conference
• Utrecht, the Netherlands – Land Academy conference

2017

• Oslo, Norway - Overheating project closing conference

2016

• Dubrovnik, Croatia - IUAES Conference
• Liege, Belgium - Seminar ‘Mining booms & busts in Africa. Towards a comparative approach’ (University of Liege)
• Uppsala, Sweden - workshop on the ‘The Moral Economy in Africa’ (Nordic Africa Institute)

2015    

• Denver, US - AAA Annual Meeting
• Helsinki, Finland - Conference of the Finish Anthropological Society
• Oslo, Norway – Mining Encounters workshop (University of Oslo)
• Oslo, Norway – Seminar ‘Extractive economies in West Africa: recent trends and socio-political issues’ (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
• Pittsburgh, US - SFAA Annual Meeting

2014    

• Njala, Sierra Leone – workshop ‘The changing face of corporate responsibility in the extractive industry: From philanthropy to sustainable investments’ (Njala University)
• Oslo, Norway – Institute’s seminar Department of Social Anthropology
  Tallinn, Estonia - EASA biennial conference

2013    

• Surrey, UK - Workshop on artisanal mining (University of Surrey)

2010    

• Reading, UK – Workshop on artisanal mining (University of Reading)
• Utrecht, The Netherlands - Conference of the Dutch Anthropological Association