‘Strategies of the strong, tactics of the weak’: Exploring the dynamics of resistance against power and its manifestations on artisanal and small-scale mining

Attempts to eliminate unlicensed artisanal and small-scale mining have resulted in an asymmetric conflict between the state and miners. While much literature has explored this tenuous and sometimes conflictual relationship, the dynamics remain under-theorised. Drawing on de Certeau’s articulation of strategies and tactics as our analytical prism, we theorise and categorise the situated actions of, and relationship between, the state and miners, and their potential implications for livelihoods and the extractive economy. Our contribution highlights two distinct temporal frames of engagement that have often culminated in ‘showdowns’ between the state and miners: powerful structures played out in the form of formalisation and military action that re-enact the marginalisation of artisanal mining operators, and miners’ practical subversive responses to the system through ‘bribery’ and ‘hide and mine’. Emphasising the power in miners’ resistance and its domination in localised quotidian worlds, we delineate why the strategies of mining governance regimes, especially in weak institutional contexts, have failed to achieve their intended purpose. Premised on the notion that there are no clear winners in the battle between strategies and tactics, we invite policymakers to temper their romanticised views of current artisanal mining governance strategies, emphasising the strengthening of relational ties with informal-artisanal operators.