Fool’s Gold: An Examination of Liberalization and Extractive Mining and in Ghana
Abstract
This thesis assesses the spatial distribution of mines in Ghana and its effect on
residents in nearby communities. Large-scale mines are largely concentrated in the
country’s “Golden Triangle,” a gold-rich area in southwest Ghana that has seen increased
conflict, displacement, and poverty due to the expansion of large-scale mines, a key
part of development policy in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Testing the relationship
between the independent variable of a resident’s distance to the nearest large-scale
mine and the dependent variables of their household 1) wellbeing and 2) attitudes
towards government, as measured through a robust set of survey responses, this analysis
is designed to assess the role of large-scale mining in the everyday lives and political
perspectives of rural Ghanaians. Undertaken with an interdisciplinary approach, this
research question possesses relevance to greater development scholarship, as large-scale
mining aptly represents the logics behind the last several decades of structural adjustment
and its successors. The data analysis finds no statistically-significant relationship
between household wellbeing and distance to the nearest mine, with little evidence
of any effect. However, in testing the relationship between household attitudes towards
government and distance to the nearest mine, there is a significant relationship found
that poses further questions. The influence of control variables is also discussed.
Type
Honors thesisDepartment
Political SciencePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/16721Citation
Gundersen, Connor (2018). Fool’s Gold: An Examination of Liberalization and Extractive Mining and in Ghana.
Honors thesis, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/16721.Collections
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