My PhD Research is on the role of informality in the production of global commodities. Specifically, I am interested in assessing how informal labour is mobilized and demobilized, its multiple relations with state and capital institutions, and how these impact the life conditions of the informal labourers and their families. I explore those questions through the case study of the work and lives of artisanal and small-scale gold miners in Burkina Faso, the majority of whom operates in the informal and often illegal part of the gold mining sector.