Dr. Robert Pijpers

• Political Economy
• Environment and socio-spatial arrangements
• Natural resource extraction (industrial and small-scale)
• Land use, land governance and landed power relations
• (Re)configurations of power
• Development
• Temporality and sustainability
• Africa, with a special 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.

Publications Pijpers
 

Book monograph (1)

1.       Pijpers, R.J. (forthcoming 2024). Mining and Development in Sierra Leone: Negotiating Change and Navigating Uncertainty. New York and Abingdon: Routledge (manuscript in preparation, book contract signed).

Edited books and special issues (3)

2.       D’Angelo, L. and Pijpers, R.J. (eds, 2022). The Anthropology of Resource Extraction. New York and Abingdon: Routledge.

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

4.       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.

Journal articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals (11)

1.       Luning, S. & Pijpers, R.J. (2022). Drawing on Words and Images: collaborations in the anthropology of the underground. Anthropology and Photography 16.

2.       Pijpers, R.J. & Luning, S. (2021). We have so many challenges: Small-scale mining, COVID-19 and constant interruptions in West Africa. Anthropology Today 37 (2): 10-14.

3.       Pijpers, R.J. et al. (2021). Mining ‘Waste’: Repurposing and Transforming Residues in Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining. Etnofoor 33 (2): 13-39.

4.       Fisher, E. et al. (2021). Transforming Matters: Sustaining Gold Lifeways in Small-Scale Mining. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 49: 190-200.

5.       Pijpers, R.J. (2020). Lost glory or poor legacy? The past as political instrument in a Sierra Leonean mining town. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie / Journal of Social and Cultural Anthropology 145: 111-130.

6.       Luning, S. and Pijpers, R.J (2018). Shifting alliances in accessing the underground. Africa 88 (4): 876-880.

7.       D’Angelo, L. and Pijpers, R.J. (2018). Mining Temporalities: An Overview. The Extractive Industries and Society 5 (2): 215-222.

8.       Luning, S. and Pijpers, R.J. (2017). Governing access to gold in Ghana: in-depth geopolitics on mining concessions. Africa 87 (4): 758-779.

9.       Pijpers, R.J. (2016). Mining, expectations and turbulent times: locating accelerated change in rural Sierra Leone. History & Anthropology 27 (5): 504 - 520.

10.   Pijpers, R.J. (2014). Crops and Carats: Exploring the Interconnectedness of Mining and Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. Futures 62 (A): 32 - 39.

11.   Pijpers, R.J. (2011). When diamonds go bust: contextualizing livelihood changes in rural Sierra Leone. Journal of International Development 23: 1068 - 1079.

Book chapters in academic books (9)

1.       Pijpers, R.J. (2022). Development. In D’Angelo, L. and Pijpers, R.J. (eds). The Anthropology of Resource Extraction. New York and Abingdon: Routledge.

2.       D’Angelo, L. and Pijpers, R.J. (2022). The Anthropology of Resource Extraction: An Introduction. In D’Angelo, L. and Pijpers, R.J. (eds). The Anthropology of Resource Extraction. New York and Abingdon: Routledge.

3.       Pijpers, R.J. and Rajak, D. (2022). Final Reflections and Future Agendas. In D’Angelo, L. and Pijpers, R.J. (eds). The Anthropology of Resource Extraction. New York and Abingdon: Routledge.

4.       Pijpers, R.J. (2020). Ghana: A History of Expansion and Contraction in Gold Mining. In Verbrugge, B. and Geenen, S. (eds). The Global Gold Production System Touching Ground: A Story of Global Expansion, Technological Innovation, and Informalization. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 169-84.

5.       Pijpers, R.J. (2018). Territories of contestation: Negotiating mining concessions in Sierra Leone. In Pijpers, R.J. and Eriksen, T.H. (eds). Mining Encounters: Extractive Industries in an Overheated World. London: Pluto Press, pp. 78-96.

6.       Pijpers, R.J. and Eriksen, T.H. (2018). Introduction: Negotiating the multiple edges of mining encounters. In Pijpers, R.J. and Eriksen, T.H. (eds). Mining Encounters: Extractive Industries in an Overheated World. London: Pluto Press, pp. 1-20.

7.       Pijpers, R.J. (2017). I want to be a Millionaire: Survival, trust and deception in Sierra Leone’s economy of dreams. In Rooij, V., de (ed.). Anthropological knowledge on the move: Contributions from MA graduates at Dutch Universities. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 135 - 153.

8.       Pijpers, R.J. (2016). Politics of localness: claiming gains in rural Sierra Leone. In Eriksen, T.H. and Schober, E. (eds). Identity Destabilised: Living in an Overheated World. London: Pluto Press, pp. 153 - 170. 

9.       Pijpers, R.J. (2010). Busting diamonds, booming gold: crisis, gender and money in the Sierra Leone mining sector. In: Panella C. (eds.) Worlds of Debts: Gold Mining in West Africa as an Interdisciplinary Field of Study. Amsterdam: Rozenberg Publishers, pp. 79 -94.

Book reviews in peer-reviewed scientific journals (2)

1.       Pijpers, R.J. (2019). Between the Plough and the Pick: Informal, Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in the Contemporary World, Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt (Ed.). Australian National University Press, Canberra (2018). Extractive Industries and Society 6 (2): 630-631

2.       Pijpers, R.J. (2019). MÜHLFRIED, Florian (ed.) 2018. Mistrust: ethnographic approximations. Transcript Verlag, 232 pages. PB: 34,99 € / E-book: open access. ISBN: 978-3-8376-3923-0. Social Anthropology 27: 125-125

Selected other professional publications (8)

1.       Fisher, E. et al. (2023). Gold Matters: Visualizing Mining Worlds. Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden. 

2.       Pijpers, R.J. (2022). Anthropological engagements with mining. Audio interview conducted by Oliver Tappe. 13 June 2022.

3.       Gold Matters – From Africa to the Amazon (2021). https://www.exhibitiongoldmatters.com. Gold Matters project Virtual Exhibition, curated by dr. Sabine Luning in collaboration with Gold matters team members and small-scale miners. 

4.       Pijpers, R.J. & Luning, S. (2020). Co-labouring for Sustainability: the value of transdisciplinary collaborations between mining actors, artists and researchers. www.gold-matters.org (republished by the T2S Research Forum, the Leiden Anthropology blog, Voice4Thought and i2insights.org).

5.       Pijpers, R.J. (2018). Creating a story: Large-scale bioenergy production and its critics in Sierra Leone. Published by Leiden Anthropology Blog:         http://www.leidenanthropologyblog.nl/articles/creating-a-story-large-scale-bioenergy-production-and-its-critics-in-sierra

6.       Pijpers, R.J. (2016). Box 2: The pitfalls of data collection - reflections from Sierra Leone. In Nolte, K., Chamberlain, W. & Giger, M. (eds). International Land Deals for Agriculture. Fresh insights from the Land Matrix: Analytical Report II. Bern, Montpellier, Hamburg, Pretoria: Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern; Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement; German Institute of Global and Area Studies; University of Pretoria; Bern Open Publishing, pp: 5 - 6.

7.       Pijpers, R.J. (2015). Trust lies at the heart of making economic recovery more equitable for Sierra Leone after Ebola. Published by The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/trust-lies-at-the-heart-of-making-economic-recovery-more-equitable-for-sierra-leone-after-ebola-45178 (republished by allafrica.com)

8.       Pijpers, R.J. (2014). Songs of ignorance. Published by Open Democracy: https://opendemocracy.net/ robert-j-pijpers/songs-of-ignorance

Complete List of Publications (PDF)

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

2023

Panel ‘Visualizing mining worlds, envisioning mining futures’ at ECAS, the biennial conference of the Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies  (Cologne, Germany, with dr. Sabine Luning)

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

2023

Online - Extractivism and Transition Research Online Dialogues (ETROD, a monthly online discussion platform)
 

2022

Rome, Italy - Sapienza University of Rome, Department of History, Anthropology, Religions, Art History, media and Performing Arts
 

2020

Online - Gold Matters. Sustainability Transformations in Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining Mid-term Conference. 

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