Mining Work, Family and Community: A Spatially-Oriented Approach to the Impact of the Ravensthorpe Nickel Mine Closure in Remote Australia

Abstract

While changes in work and employment practices in the mining sector have been profound, the literature addressing mining work is somewhat partial as it focuses primarily on the workplace as the key (or only) site of analysis, leaving the relationship between mining work and families and communities under-theorized. This article adopts a spatially oriented, case-study approach to the sudden closure of the Ravensthorpe nickel mine in the south-west of Western Australia to explore the interplay between the new scales and mobilities of labour and capital and work–family–community connections in mining. In the context of the dramatically reconfigured industrial arena of mining work, the study contributes to a theoretical engagement between employment relations and the spatial dimensions of family and community in resource-affected communities.

A Critical Analysis of Employing Immigrant Workers in Australia

“…For the ability of adaption and acceptation is lack of attentions. Thus, the immigrant skilled worker come to Australia such a new environment and works under poor conditions with diversity background members, they might be hard to adapt the various cultures [13]. For example, the lack of language can become a barrier for communication and establishing relationships with local workers and other workers.…”

The structural underpinnings impacting rapid growth in resource regions

“…Rising costs, lengthier approval processes, increasingly strict environmental regulations, and a reduced role for senior levels of government in town development 2 all supported a shift in preference towards rotational workforce practices, labour mobility, and long distance labour commuting 3 (Humphreys, 2000;McDonald et al, 2012). Similarly, from an industry perspective, issues of cost, improvements in (and long-term cost reductions to) transportation and communication, the adoption of flexible production techniques, the adoption of extended shifts to support year round operations 24 h a day, lower turnover and absenteeism, and access to a larger supply of qualified workers also helped to make rotational workforce practices more appealing (Aroca and Atienza, 2011;Markey, 2004;Tonts, 2010).…”

Women and economy: complex inequality in a post-industrial landscape

“…This article limits itself, for purposes of word count, to one institutional domain described by Walby (2009) -the economy -but of course other institutional domains figure in the shadows, their presence felt and given form by the women who took part in this research. Economy is broadly conceived to embrace not only free wage labour but also, and important for women (McDowell 2008b;McDonald, Mayes, and Pini 2012), domestic labour and state welfare. To examine the complex inequality identified by women in this research, the substantive sections of this article are organised around these three spheres of economy identified by Walby (2009): workplace/paid work, home/unpaid work and state/welfare.…”

“…Carol is 1 of 31 women aged between 16 and 90 whose experiences of paid work are drawn upon to capture cross-and intergenerational experiences of paid work that expose the long-standing, yet dynamic, inequality that women's accounts of paid work collectively recount (Hopkins and Pain 2007). Although rooted in East Durham, a former coalfield, the women's experiences resonate with those living and working in other postindustrial places that grew out of a particular industry, suffered the trauma of industrial closure and job loss, and coping with a new economy shaped by low pay and insecurity (Linkon and Russo 2002;Pini, Mayes, and McDonald 2010;Walkerdine and Jimenez 2012;McDonald, Mayes, and Pini 2012).…”