Getting the Gold Out of the Ground: Social Constraints on Technical Capacity in South African Deep‐Level Mining

In: Journal of historical sociology, Band 28, Heft 4, S. 572-594

Abstract

AbstractThis paper examines the limits and pressures imposed on South African deep‐level mining technology by changing economic and socio‐political constraints that have obliged mining engineers to adapt their practices of "getting gold out of the ground." Initially employing straight‐forward arguments about the importance of means for achieving ends, the paper eventually raises questions that complicate our understanding of practices that underlie simple conceptions of mining technology.