Christian Zlolniski
University of Texas at Arlington, TX·Social Science
Shoppers increasingly buy products marketed as sustainable. Making those goods, however, relies on supply chains that may harm workers and the environment where the raw materials are dug up.
- Fields
Social Science
- Topics
artisanal and small-scale mining
extractive industries
natural resource commodification
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Document labor arrangements and working conditions in artisanal and small-scale mining that supplies natural resources for sustainably branded products.
- Examine the strategies companies use to market products from small-scale extraction as sustainable to consumers.
- Identify the purposes for which consumers use these products, and assess whether demand at the point of sale harms environmental and economic sustainability at the source.
More about the research
This project asks whether demand for products meant to improve sustainability at the store could undermine sustainability in the communities where they come from. It focuses on artisanal and small-scale mining, labor-intensive digging by individuals or small groups. Such mining is a major source of jobs and has grown since 2000. Social scientists have mostly studied large industrial extraction of oil and gas, so it remains understudied.
Why it matters
The findings could inform public policy on mining and on selling raw materials into new sustainability-branded markets. Showing how working and environmental conditions at small-scale mines connect to consumer demand may help policymakers, companies and buyers judge whether 'sustainable' products are sustainable where they start. Results will also be shared to build public understanding of science.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Heidi Hausermann
University of Michigan, MI·Earth & Environmental Science
Determine the local and regional fate of mercury vaporized from artisanal gold mining in Ghana, using passive air samplers, bulk deposition, throughfall, litterfall and soil sampling with mass budgets and Lagrangian plume models.
Andrew Sweeting
University of Maryland, MD·Social Science
Measure how shocks to electricity demand, generating costs, coal mining and railroads pass through to coal and transport prices, using reduced-form econometrics on confidential shipment and purchase data, interpreted with Cournot and Spulber models.
Jason Cons
University of Texas at Austin, TX·Social Science
Test which social and cultural variables shape how coastal fishing communities organize their resource management networks, using interviews and behavioral observations within these communities.
The school
University of Texas at Arlington: 11 labs on PI Pages, $154M a year on research, 177 research doctorates a year.
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