Voices from below: Artisanal- and small-scale mining as a product and catalyst of rural transformation

•This article interrogates the relationship between ASM and rural transformations.•Existing research emphasizes the economic and livelihoods dimensions of ASM.•ASM is both poverty-driven and a platform for wealth creation.•ASM becomes embedded in rural sociopolitical structures.•Oral histories are a powerful instrument for analyzing these issues.

Combining secondary evidence from a growing body of literature on artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) with primary oral history evidence from the Southern Philippines, this article zooms in on the relationship between ASM-expansion and wider processes of rural transformation. It is argued that a future research agenda should devote more critical attention to documenting and analyzing (1) the complexity and heterogeneity of the ASM-phenomenon; (2) the role and anatomy of (informal) labour markets in the sector; (3) the ways in which the ASM-sector becomes embedded in rural sociopolitical structures, and how this affects who benefits from ASM-expansion.