Moralities, risk and rules in West African artisanal gold mining communities: A case study of Northern Benin

The paper explores the life and work of young male gold miners in Northern Benin, West Africa. It describes modes of organisation, norms and rules of mining teams as well as the situation in the region's mining camps at large. Despite various internal conflicts and a high degree of social fluctuation and uncertainty due to repeated state interventions, the social field of gold mining is marked by cohesion and viable patterns of risk sharing.