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Community development at the coal face: networks and sustainability among artisanal mining communities in I ndwe, E astern C ape P rovince, S outh A frica
Author(s) -
Nel Etienne,
Binns Tony,
Gibb Matthew
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the geographical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.071
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1475-4959
pISSN - 0016-7398
DOI - 10.1111/geoj.12022
Subject(s) - business , principle of legality , corporate social responsibility , coal mining , government (linguistics) , sustainability , compromise , face (sociological concept) , coal , political science , public relations , geography , sociology , law , ecology , social science , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , biology
Artisanal, or small‐scale mining, is widely recognised as a key, but often controversial, survival strategy adopted by low‐income communities in the global South. This paper examines how members of one community in S outh A frica, that of Indwe, in a desperate effort to create self‐employment, have initiated micro‐level coal‐mining enterprises, which have had the downstream effect of supporting local transportation and brick‐making operations. Government concerns over the legality of these activities overlie the recent depletion of the local resource and the involvement of a mining corporate in the region. In terms of the way forward, the paper explores the uneasy compromise which has emerged between the corporate's social responsibility initiatives and the suspicions of the artisanal miners.