Mining space and sustainability: A systematic review

Abstract

Mining operations present social, economic, and environmental benefits and challenges, many of which are context specific. While social approaches and spatial approaches have been used to study mining impacts for decades, approaches that consider social and spatial dimensions in tandem are growing. This is timely from a sustainability perspective given the need for integrated research approaches that can uncover the nature of complex mining-related challenges and deliver effective solutions. This paper presents findings from a systematic literature review. It documents concepts and methods used to frame and investigate social space to date within mining contexts and considers how these link to sustainability. This study finds that social spatial research on mining is framed primarily by socio-spatial, socio-ecological, and materialist perspectives. Authors mainly rely on traditional methodologies and methods, especially ethnography. Social spatial research appears to be well-suited to the study of diverse relational dynamics in the context of mining and sustainability. However, while existing research has contributed to much new knowledge about complex sustainability problems (systems knowledge) and values that ought to change (target knowledge), fewer papers consider strategies for addressing these problems (transformation knowledge). Future research might adopt co-productive and/or transdisciplinary approaches to develop new, innovative research methods and meaningful solutions to sustainability challenges.