Labor and Environmental Implications in the Commodification of Natural Resources for Sustainably Branded Markets

可持续品牌产品市场是一个庞大且快速增长的行业的一部分。为了满足消费者的环境可持续性需求，企业依赖于供应链，这些供应链可能会在原产地减轻劳动力和环境影响。本项目探讨了这样一个供应链，询问消费者对旨在改善销售可持续性的产品的需求是否会对这些产品来源的社区的可持续性产生不利影响。该项目特别关注小规模采掘活动，以及这些活动总体上是否对环境和经济可持续性的总体措施产生影响。将传播研究数据，以提高公众对科学和科学方法的理解，并为与新市场的采矿和商业化有关的公共政策提供信息。该项目扩大了在科学和先进的科学教育的代表性不足的群体的参与，通过提供研究机会，为第一代少数民族学生在研究人员的家机构，西班牙裔服务机构（HSI）。本研究探讨了劳动密集型提取的产品，服务需求的环境可持续发展的产品。它特别着眼于手工和小规模采矿业，这是采掘业的主要就业来源，自2000年以来有所加强，但研究相对不足。社会科学家主要研究石油和天然气等自然资源的大规模工业开采，而较少关注小规模和劳动密集型的采矿。该研究侧重于三个领域：小型采掘业的劳动力安排和工作条件;公司营销这些产品所采用的策略;以及消费者使用这些产品的目的。研究人员整合了民族志方法，包括参与者观察，半结构化访谈和照片文件，在采掘地点的采矿量的定量数据。该研究为自然资源开采的经济、社会和环境影响提供了科学知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The market for sustainably branded products is part of a massive and rapidly growing industry. In meeting the environmental sustainability demands of the consumer, companies rely on supply chains that may have mitigating labor and environmental implications at the point of origin. This project explores such a supply chain, asking whether consumer demand for products designed to improve sustainability at the point of sale adversely impact sustainability in the communities from which those products originate. The project looks specifically at small-scale extractive contexts, and whether in the aggregate they have consequences for overall measures in environmental and economic sustainability. Data from the study will be disseminated to improve the public's understanding of science and the scientific method, and inform public policies related to mining and commercialization in new markets. The project broadens the participation of groups underrepresented in science and advance scientific education by providing research opportunities for first-generation minority students at the researcher’s home institution, a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI).This study examines the labor-intensive extraction of products that service demands for environmentally sustainable products. It looks specifically at artisanal and small-scale mining contexts, which are major sources of employment in extractive contexts, and have intensified since 2000, but relatively understudied. Social scientists have mainly studied mass-scale industrial extraction of natural resources such as oil and gas while paying less attention to small-scale and more labor-intensive types of mining. The study focuses on three areas: the labor arrangements and working conditions involved in small-scale extractive industries; the strategies used by companies to market those products; and the purposes for which consumers use them. The researcher integrates ethnographic methods including participant-observation, semi-structured interviews, and photo documentation, with quantitative data on mining volumes at extractive sites. The study contributes scientific knowledge on the economic, social, and environmental impacts of natural resource extraction.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.