Mining ethical ambiguities within global interconnections

Certification systems, alongside the use of digitisation to share information (blockchain) along the supply chain, often increase a public consensus by exploiting rhetorical appeals about protecting the environment, workers and human rights in general. In many cases, however, they continue to reproduce the gap between theory and implementation of ethical-sustainable intentions in certain socio-productive contexts in GVCs. Empirical research can show the flaws in the local functioning of transnational ethical-sustainable standards and the results can be useful for reconfiguring corporate-political goals. Faced with the threat of financial losses due to international boycotts, and due to the positive economic impact of the diamond industry in certain countries such as Canada, companies in the sector were presented with the possibility, through a certification of ethicality, of sponsoring diamond mining and trade practised legally while respecting the Indigenous peoples, workers and protecting the environment. However, this objective is difficult to achieve as socio-economic asymmetries continue to emerge between actors involved in the mining industry.