ABSTRACT
This final chapter of Mining, Mobility, and Social Change in the Global South provides an overview of key themes explored in the volume, addresses questions relating to the governance of mobility behaviors, and flags priority areas for further research. The chapter focuses on four aspects, or dimensions, of mining-related mobilities: flows into mining areas, circular and itinerant flows between areas (mining and non-mining), movements within mining areas (local flows), and flows away from mining areas. Key questions addressed are: what drives, enables, and constrains these different flows, and how are places and the lives of people changed by them? The chapter highlights the complexity of mobility behaviors and draws attention to the key role played by human agency. It also explores governance challenges, focusing particularly on the issue of unmanaged population influxes into mining areas. The final section highlights four research priorities: mapping population movement patterns and how they impact on places over time; longitudinal studies of people who move away from – not just into – mining areas; more focus on places that are connected to mining areas by mobility; and research that investigates immobility as well as mobility.
