Mining has played a key role in the growth of many towns in South Africa. This growth has been accompanied by a proliferation of informal settlements, by pressure to provide basic services and by institutional pressures in local government to support mining. Fragile municipal finance, changing social attributes, the pressures of shift-work on mineworkers, the impact on the physical environment and perceived new inequalities between mineworkers, contract workers and original inhabitants have further complicated matters. Mining growth has however also led to substantial local economic benefits to existing business and it has contributed to a mushrooming of new enterprises. While the relationship between mining and economic development at the country level has received adequate attention in existing literature, less is known about the consequences of mining at the local level. This book investigates the local impacts of mining in South Africa, focusing on employment, inequality, housing, business development, worker well-being, governance, municipal finance, planning and the environment. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Mining and Community in South Africa will be of interest to scholars of South Africa, economic development, labour and industry, politics and planning.

This book offers a multidisciplinary analysis of approach in the field of energy studies of Japan, examining post-closure coal mining towns in Japan and their gentrification. It considers the impact of closures on the agricultural industry, the re-absorption of laid off coal miners into service and industrial sectors, and the gentrification of former coal mines into agricultural farms and communities. It also considers the historical process of gentrification in terms of origins, social history, continuity/discontinuity and cooperation/resistance. The historical background of coal mine closures analyses nostalgic recollection about mine closures and Sakubei's UNESCO drawings of life in the coal mines and other cultural materials related to coal energy and the mining industry in general in Japan.

This text explores recreational life during a period of economic and social change which was important to bring meaning and pleasure to the lives, often described as 'horrendous', of Victorian miners in the north-east of England.

Describes daily life in a rural mining community in North America.

This book explores the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of the global mining sector and local communities by focusing on a number of international cases drawn from various locations in Canada, the Philippines, and Scandinavia. Mining’s contribution to economic development varies greatly across countries. In some, it has been a major engine of development, but in others, disputes have erupted over land use, property rights, environmental damage, and revenue sharing. Corporate social responsibility programs are increasingly relied upon to manage company-community relations, yet conflicts persist in many settings, with significant costs for companies and communities. Exploring the many factors and drivers that characterize relationships among different actors within the sector, the volume contributes towards the development of practical wisdom, collective understanding, common sense, and prudence required for the mining sector and community partners to realize the economic potential and social and environmental responsibilities of non-renewable resource development. The book examines case studies from Canada, Scandinavia, and the Philippines, three regions amongst the world's top countries of mining operations. Drawing on their extensive experience in these regions, the contributors explore distinctive mining sectors in the Global North and South, the variation surrounding different types of extractive industries, and at different scales, and the legal processes in place to protect local communities. Key themes include corporate social responsibility, impact assessment, foreign ownership, Indigenous Peoples, gender, local insurgency, and mining disasters as well as climate change. The book identifies areas of future research and pathways to achieving stronger, respectful, and mutually beneficial relationships at the nexus of global mineral extraction and local communities. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of the extractive industries, natural resource management, sustainable business and corporate social responsibility, Indigenous studies, and sustainable planning and development.

All industrialization is deeply rooted within the specific geographies in which it took place, and echoes of previous industrialization continue to reverberate in these places through to the modern day. This book investigates the overlap of memory and the impacts of industrialization within today’s communities and the senses of place and heritage that grew alongside and in reaction to the growth of mines, mills, and factories. The economic and social change that accompanied the unchecked accumulation of wealth and exploitation of labor as the industrial revolution spread throughout the world has numerous lasting impacts on the socioeconomics of today. Likewise, the planet itself is now reeling. The memory and heritage of these processes reach into the communities that owe the industrial revolution their existence, but these populations also often suffered adverse impacts to their health and environment through the large-scale and rapid extraction of natural resources and production of goods. Through the themes of memory, community, and place; working post-industrial landscapes; and the de-romanticization of industrial pasts, this book examines the endurance and decline of these communities, the spatial processes of industrial byproducts, and the memory and heritage of industrialization and its legacies. While based in the traditions of geography, this collection also draws upon and will be of great interest to students and scholars of cultural anthropology, archaeology, sociology, history, architecture, civil engineering, and heritage, memory, museum, and tourism studies. Using global examples, the authors provide a uniquely geographic understanding to industrial heritage across the spaces, places, and memories of industrial development.