Universität Wien
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240518 VO MM3 (Post)Mining Anthropology in a Global World (2026S)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 24 - Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie
Moodle

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Details

Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 26.05. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Wednesday 27.05. 09:45 - 13:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Thursday 28.05. 09:45 - 13:00 Hörsaal A, NIG 4.Stock
  • Tuesday 02.06. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Friday 05.06. 09:45 - 13:00 Hörsaal A, NIG 4.Stock
  • Monday 15.06. 09:45 - 13:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Tuesday 16.06. 09:45 - 13:00 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Wednesday 17.06. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

The course introduces the students to the anthropology of mining and postmining worlds as interconnected landscapes in a global context. During the course, attention will be paid to the analysis of various ethnographic approaches to the life of mines and miners, both in contexts where mines are still active and in those where they have been closed. The course will begin with a general reconstruction of the debate on mining and post-mining anthropology, carried out through readings of ethnographic articles; later, the course will move on to anthropological approaches to cultural heritage and extractivism. Specifically, the course will explore the different theoretical-methodological perspectives that anthropology has developed over the last few decades. Particular attention will be given to the dialectic of temporalities that arise from the overlapping of miners’ memories and narratives constructed by heritage makers in post-mining contexts.
Against this backdrop, the course aims to stress specific interconnections between mining and post-mining worlds through the key of extractivism in both productive and heritagization settings.

Learning goals
By the end of the course, students will be expected to:
• Critically approach mining and post-mining anthropology through a body of ethnographic works
• Understand the interrelation between mining and post-mining worlds through the extractivist theoretical perspective.
• Grasp the connection between local and global scale in (post)mining worlds.
• Critically approach the dialectic of temporalities in heritage-making contexts.

Assessment and permitted materials

There will be a final exam for this class worth 100% of the final grade. This exam will include 25 multiple choice questions (100 points) based on the assigned study materials.
The exam will take 1,5 hours. The exam is planned in presence, on paper, in the classroom. Students will not be allowed to bring reading materials or digital equipment to the exam.
A dictionary is allowed.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

A = 1 (Very Good): 87 - 100% / B = 2 (Good): 75 - 86,99% / C = 3 (Satisfactory): 63 - 74,99% / D = 4 (Enough): 50 - 62,99% / E = 5 (Not Enough): 00 - 49,99%

Examination topics

The multiple-choice examination will assess students’ analytical engagement with the assigned readings and their critical understanding of the themes explored throughout the course.

Reading list

Bachis, Francesco. 2025. ‘“Something I Cannot Look at”: Ruins and Dialectic of Temporalities in Southwest Post-Mining Sardinia (Italy)’. Journal of Modern Italian Studies 30 (1): 79–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/1354571X.2024.2424095.
Ballard, Chris, and Glenn Banks. 2003. ‘Resource Wars: The Anthropology of Mining’. Annual Review of Anthropology 32 (1): 287–313. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.32.061002.093116.
Benson, Peter, and Stuart Kirsch. 2010. ‘Capitalism and the Politics of Resignation’. Current Anthropology 51 (4): 459–86. https://doi.org/10.1086/653091.
Coumans, Catherine. 2019. ‘The ‘Shooting Fields of Porgera Joint Venture’: An Exploration of Corporate Power, Reputational Dynamics and Indigenous Agency’. In Mining Encounters. Extractive Industries in an Overheated World, edited by Robert Jan Pijpers and Thomas Hylland Eriksen, 38-58. London: Pluto Press.
D’Angelo, Lorenzo, and Robert J. Pijpers. 2018. ‘Mining Temporalities: An Overview’. The Extractive Industries and Society 5 (2): 215–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2018.02.005.
Golub, Alex. 2019. ‘From Allegiance to Connection: Structural Injustice, Scholarly Norms and the Anthropological Ethics of Mining Encounters’. In Mining Encounters. Extractive Industries in an Overheated World, edited by Robert Jan Pijpers and Thomas Hylland Eriksen, 21–37. London: Pluto Press.
Kideckel, David A. 2018. ‘Coal Power: Class, Fetishism, Memory, and Disjuncture in Romania’s Jiu Valley and Appalachian West Virginia’. Anuac 7 (1):67-88. https://doi.org/10.7340/ANUAC2239-625X-3291.
Kirsch, Stuart. 2007. ‘Indigenous Movements and the Risks of Counterglobalization: Tracking the Campaign against Papua New Guinea’s Ok Tedi Mine’. American Ethnologist 34 (2): 303–21. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.2007.34.2.303.
Ødegaard, Cecilie Vindal. 2024. ‘Frontier Spaces in the Arctic and the Andes: The Miner, the Smuggler and Performances of (Post-)Extractivism’. In The Global Life of Mines: Mining and Post-Mining in Comparative Perspective, edited by Antonio Maria Pusceddu and Filippo M. Zerilli, 21–44. New York: Berghahn.
Rubbers, Benjamin. 2022. ‘Mineworkers’. In The Anthropology of Resource Extraction, edited by Lorenzo D’Angelo and Robert J. Pijpers, 113–30. London: Routledge.
Zanini, Roberta Clara. 2024. ‘Contentious Legacies: Post-Mining and Heritage-Making in the Italian Alps’. In The Global Life of Mines: Mining and Post-Mining in Comparative Perspective, edited by Antonio Maria Pusceddu and Filippo M. Zerilli, 140–62. New York: Berghahn.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Mo 15.06.2026 15:47