Reinforcing path marginalization: revealing the unaccounted labor organization at a mining frontier in Indonesia

Abstract

How could we conceptualize path development taking place in regions dominated by extracting industries and subsistence economies? The article expands existing Evolutionary Economic Geography theory by focussing on extractive economies in a peripheral region that has, thus far, barely been covered. It challenges existing conceptualizations by highlighting a tin producing island in Indonesia. The article introduces the concept of path marginalization and its reinforcing mechanisms that explain the dynamics between large and artisanal mining activities. It examines how the mining path is reproduced by the interaction between multiple forms of labour organization that are normally unaccounted for.