The eyes of the world : mining the digital age in the Eastern DR Congo / James H. Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, James H., 1970- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Small-scale mining--Congo (Democratic Republic).

Small-scale mining.

Small-scale miners--Congo (Democratic Republic).

Small-scale miners.

Mineral industries--Congo (Democratic Republic).

Mineral industries.

Tantalum industry--Congo (Democratic Republic).

Tantalum industry.

Congo (Democratic Republic).

Physical Description:

354 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 23 cm

Other Title:

Mining the digital age in Eastern DR Congo

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2022.

Summary:

The Eyes of the World focuses on the lives and experiences of Eastern Congolese people involved in extracting and transporting the minerals needed for digital devices. The digital devices that, many would argue, define this era exist not only because of Silicon Valley innovations but also because of a burgeoning trade in dense, artisanally mined substances like tantalum, tin, and tungsten. In the tentatively postwar Eastern DR Congo, where many lives have been reoriented around artisanal mining, these minerals are socially dense, fueling movement and innovative collaborations that encompass diverse actors, geographies, temporalities, and dimensions. Focusing on the miners and traders of some of these “digital minerals,” The Eyes of the World examines how Eastern Congolese understand the work in which they are engaged, the forces pitted against them, and the complicated process through which substances in the earth and forest are converted into commodified resources. Smith shows how violent dispossession has fueled a bottom-up social theory that valorizes movement and collaboration—one that directly confronts both private mining companies and the tracking initiatives implemented by international companies aspiring to ensure that the minerals in digital devices are purified of blood--Publisher's description.

Contents:

Orientations. Prologue: An introduction to the personal, methodological, and spatiotemporal scales of the project

The eyes of the world : themes of movement, visualization, and (dis)embodiment in Congolese digital minerals extraction (an introduction)

Mining Worlds. War stories : seeing the world through war

The magic chain : interdimensional movement in the supply chain for the "black minerals"

Mining futures in the ruins

The Eyes of the World on Bisie and the Game of Tags. Bisie during the time of movement

Insects of the forest

The Battle of Bisie

Closure

Game of tags : supply chain auditing as purification project

Conclusion: Chains, holes, and wormholes.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [323]-344) and index (pages [345]-354).

ISBN:

9780226774350

022677435X

9780226816067

0226816060

OCLC:

1241245890