Ph.D. / Definitions of sustainable development can be grouped according to their ideological orientation and economic paradigm in which they are placed: neoclassical; social and ecological modernisation of neoclassical; and radical. The view of sustainable development predominant in the mining sector aligns with the dominant neoclassical economic paradigm. It is revealed specifically through the system of metrics used, the most obvious of which is profit, shareholder value, and growth. The idea of sustainability is understood in mining as the need to respond to increasing regulation by adding two extra dimensions to the economic one – social and environmental. This is abbreviated as the triple bottom line, or weak sustainability. In the exercise of process stewardship, mines tend to follow global responsibility guidelines formulated for the sector, but product stewardship is of secondary importance. Narrow definitions of sustainability fail to take into account the biosphere as a complex adaptive system. In this study there is a discussion about an innovative collaborative sustainability model to be developed in a new industrial sector. That sector would operate beyond mining, while at the same time using mining waste residues feedstock as its inputs. The landscape in which the new sector would be located would be the current neoclassical one, but the model has been formulated as a tool to move towards a broader conception of sustainability. As a means of clarifying the fuzzy boundaries between the various entities and components of the complex adaptive system of the biosphere, for the purposes of discussion, the biosphere has been divided into seven separate schematic dimensions (after Gell-Mann, 1994: 345-366). These are ideological, institutional, economic, social, demographic, informational and technological. Six research and development projects, carried out over seven years (2002 to 2009) in a research and development group of a trans-national mining corporation, were directed by the author. These projects, in the fields of improved air quality and of minimisation of mining waste residues, formed the basis for conceptualising a new collaborative sustainability model. The projects, when placed in the context of seven dimensions of the biosphere and as examples of sustainable development, reveal themselves as falling far short of attaining sustainability goals. What a reductionist definition of sustainability used in the mining industry means is that the industry is slow at anticipating needs of communities after a mine closes, or after organisational restructuring and downsizing in the trans-national corporation has happened, or in dealing with the influx of people into the area who come to improve their economic/political opportunities. The implementation of sustainability principles in mines is directed by global protocols, directives and regulatory obligations, and is driven by the market economy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:7324 |
| Date | 02 November 2012 |
| Creators | Ferraz, Maria Fátima Freitas |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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