Local Responses to Mine Closure in South Africa

Dependencies and Social Disruption
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-032-51043-9
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 200 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 473 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies of the Extractive Industries and Sustainable Development

This book investigates mine closure and local responses in South Africa, linking dependencies and social disruption.

Mine closure presents a major challenge to the mining industry and government policymakers globally, but particularly in the Global South. South Africa is experiencing notable numbers of mine closures, and this book explores the notion of social disruption, a concept often applied to describe the effects of mine growth on communities but often neglecting the impact of mine closures. The book begins with three theoretical chapters that discuss theory, closure cost frameworks and policy development in South Africa. It uses evolutionary governance theory to show how mining creates dependencies and how mining growth often blinds communities and governments to the likelihood of closure. Too easily, mining goes ahead with no concern for the possibility, or indeed inevitability, of eventual closure and how mining communities will cope. These impacts are showcased through eight place-based case studies from across South Africa, one focusing on mine workers, to demonstrate that mine closure causes significant social disruption.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars researching the social impacts of mining and the extractive industries, social geography and sustainable development, as well as policymakers and practitioners working with mine closure and social impact assessments.

Zielgruppe

Academic, Postgraduate, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Matebesi, Sethulego

Marais, Lochner

Nel, Verna

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Ökologie
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften, Biologie: Sachbuch, Naturführer
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftssektoren & Branchen Primärer Sektor
• Rechtswissenschaften Öffentliches Recht Energierecht
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Geographie: Sachbuch, Reise
• Technische Wissenschaften Sonstige Technologien | Angewandte Technik Bergbau, Hüttenwesen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 Understanding mine closure: global and national trends 2 A theoretical framework for understanding the social aspects of mine closure 3 Mine closure policies and strategies in South Africa: a critical review 4 A scoping review of the literature on mine closure 5 Miners’ lives after retrenchment 6 West Rand: decline in South Africa’s economic heartland 7 Matjhabeng: decline in the urban periphery 8 Kleinzee: looking for a new dawn amidst the diamond dust 9 Koffiefontein mine downscaling: socioeconomic and infrastructural consequences 10 Alexkor and the Richtersveld community: unlikely partners to mine diamonds together 11 Tshikondeni: mine closure in a deeply rural area 12 Emalahleni’s just transition: from closure to collaboration? 13 Rustenburg: the struggle to go beyond mining 14 Rustenburg: coping despite mine decline 15 A framework for understanding the social aspects of mine closure in South Africa

Über Autor(innen)

Sethulego Matebesi is Associate Professor and Academic Head of the Department of Sociology at the University of the Free State (UFS), South Africa. His previous publications include Civil Strife Against Local Governance: Dynamics of Community Protests in South Africa (2017) and Social Licensing and Mining in South Africa (Routledge, 2020).

Lochner Marais is Professor of Development Studies at the Centre for Development Support at the University of the Free State (UFS), South Africa, and an executive editor of the newly established journal Research Directions: Mine Closure and Transitions. He is also an honorary professor at the Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland, Australia. He has published The Social Impacts of Mine Closure in South Africa: Housing Policy and Place Attachment (Routledge, 2022).

Verna Nel is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of the Free State, South Africa. She is also qualified as a town and regional planner at Wits University, South Africa.