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Consenting to Labour Appropriation? The Mineworker on South African Gold and Coalmines, 1951 to 2011

Bibliographic Data

ID2308396
AuthorsDhiraj Kumar Nite (0000-0003-3307-9205, University of Johannesburg, South Africa; Ambedkar University, New Delhi, India), Paul Stewart (0000-0001-8902-1497, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa)
Year2017
Volume52
Issue2
Pages142-156
Publication date2017-03-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Asian and African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9096 • E-ISSN: 1745-2538
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0021909615570953
OpenAlexW2063894147
LanguageEN
References cited13

The argument of the moral economy of mines claims to illuminate the consent and associational power of mineworkers, and thereby the real foundation of social exchanges between management and black mineworkers. Our collection of life histories shows how the moral economy was fragile and its codes not widely accepted. As a tool of analysis it does not include certain facets of the workers' experience, feeling and human essence. The moral-economic relationship was conducive to surplus extraction by eliminating the non-conformist but industrious or sick workers in the labour system. It contributed to morbid sexual and emotional ways of life. The life histories further reveal how the rank-and-file generally endorsed and participated in what Moodie depicts as a positive class compromise struck between management and the workers' union from the 1980s to the 1990s. It brought to them conditions for a regular family life and 'advancing humanity'. This notwithstanding, our narrators found that the norm of apartheid gave way to that of discrimination and differentiation between black workers. Management replaced white 'boss-ism' by economism and a corporatist model of labour-management relationship. It engendered the spirit of new ways to secure opportunity

Appropriation · Argument (complex analysis · Casual · Compromise · Feeling · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · White (mutation · Working class · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Mining and Resource Management · Psychology · South African History and Culture · Law · Social Psychology

  • Comprehending Class Compromise in the History of Class Struggle on the South African Gold Mines

    T Dunbar Moodie•Society in Transition•2010

  • Worker agency in colonial, apartheid and post-apartheid gold mining workplace regimes

    Open Access•Timothy Sizwe Phakathi•Review of African Political Economy•2012

  • Sharing Life-History and Other Memory

    Dhiraj Kumar Nite•South African Historical Journal•2014

  • Bra Soks

    T Dunbar Moodie•South African Historical Journal•2013

  • Becoming a social movement union

    T Dunbar Moodie•Transformation•2010

  • Undermining Labour

    J Crush, Theresa Ulicki et al.•Journal of Southern African Studies•2001

  • Paternalised Migrants, Policing and Political Economy

    Peter Alexander•Social Dynamics•2003

  • Medicine, Politics and Disease on South Africa's Gold Mines

    Jock Mcculloch•Journal of Southern African Studies•2013

  • The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century

    Edward P Thompson•Past & Present•1971

  • The Moral Economy of the Peasant

    James C Scott•Moral Economy of the Peasant•2017

Highly citedNo

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