Si, Na

PhD topic: Social-ecological transformation of pastoral livelihood and society in Mongolia – the case of gold mining in the Tuul River Basin

Summary: This project examines how pastoral livelihoods in the Zamaar in Tuul River Basin are being reshaped by Mongolia’s rapid socio-ecological transformation driven by gold mining. While mining has become a national economic pillar, it propels rangeland degradation, water pollution, economic reorganization and social change that directly affect herders’ mobility, resource use, income structure and household and community relations. Existing research highlights pastoralists’ increasing exposure to environmental risks and competing interests from extractive industries, yet the local impacts on everyday social life and livelihood strategies remain underexplored. Through long-term ethnographic fieldwork, this study analyses how herders perceive mining, adapt to new regulatory systems, and negotiate interactions with mine companies and miners. By integrating perspectives from anthropological research on pastoralism, extractivism, and the Anthropocene, the research seeks to reveal how Mongolian pastoralists’ social and economic practice and responds and contributes to and is in turn affected by fragmenting rangeland-mining landscapes. The study will also contribute knowledge relevant for sustainable resource governance.

Skills: NVivo, SPSS

Languages: English, Chinese, Mongolian

Short portrait: 

• 2014/09 – 2018/07: Bachelor of Law in Ethnology, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China
• 2018/09 – 2021/12: MSc in Ethnology, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China
• 2022/09 – 2024/09: MSc in Social Anthropology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
• 2025/10 – present: PhD Candidate in Social Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

Email:na.si[at]stud.uni-goettingen[dot]de