Zambia, Mining, and Neoliberalism: Boom and Bust on the Globalized Copperbelt (Africa Connects)

"This book aims to understand Zambia's renowned Copperbelt region within a broad historical context and revive the tradition of scholarship that places Zambian experiences within a global perspective"-- Provided by publisher "This book paints a vivid picture of Zambia's experience riding the copper price rollercoaster. It brings together the best of recent research on Zambia's mining industry from eminent scholars in history, geography, anthropology, politics, sociology and economics. The authors discuss how aid donors pressed Zambia to privatize its key industry and how multinational mining houses took advantage of tax-breaks and lax regulation. It considers the opportunities and dangers presented by Chinese investment, how both companies and the Zambian state responded to dramatic instabilities in global commodity markets since 2004, and how frustration with the courting of mining multinationals has led to the rise of populist opposition. This detailed study of a key industry in a poor Central African state tells us a great deal about the unstable nature and uneven impacts of the whole global economic system"-- Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-xxi Introduction: Boom and Bust on the Zambian Copperbelt....Pages 1-30 Historical Perspectives on Zambia’s Mining Booms and Busts....Pages 31-58 The Economics of the Copper Price Boom in Zambia....Pages 59-90 From Boom to Bust: Diversity and Regulation in Zambia’s Privatized Copper Sector....Pages 91-126 Raw Encounters: Chinese Managers, African Workers, and the Politics of Casualization in Africa’s Chinese Enclaves....Pages 127-153 African Miners and Shape-Shifting Capital Flight: The Case of Luanshya/Baluba....Pages 155-183 Contesting Illegality: Women in the Informal Copper Business....Pages 185-208 The Mining Boom, Capital, and Chiefs in the “New Copperbelt”....Pages 209-236 Conclusion: Mining, Dispossession, and Transformation in Africa....Pages 237-268 Back Matter....Pages 269-298