| Summary: | Development has always been problematic especially in the mining sector where it
often takes place at a rapid pace. Not only is the physical environment influenced but
other aspects such as legislation and the relationship between role players are also
influenced.
The focus of this thesis is tripartite partnership formation between business, local
government and the community for sustainable development in the Rustenburg
platinum region. In essence the study was about answering the broad question of
"how can one improve the chances of setting up a sound foundation, that in turn can
lead to a successful, integrated, cooperative and unified partnership in the
Rustenburg platinum region?"
In an attempt to answer the above, both a theoretical and practical approach was
used. Functionalism and the exchange theory were used to set up practical
guidelines for successful partnership formation. The thesis also investigated how
appropriate these two theories are for the mining industry in South Africa today, i.e.
they were validated against the data obtained from the study. In addition, other
existing case studies in the mining industry were studied in order to validate the
guidelines formulated from the two theories.
At a methodological level, expanded qualitative data analyses were applied in a
comprehensive manner to ensure a close relationship between empirical data and
theory. The empirical data was gathered both by desk research and by in-depth
personal interviews.
The results of the study produced some models of how a partnership could be
structured to function optimally. As part of the results an "ideal" model for the
partnership in the Rustenburg platinum region was created and the set of guidelines
was ranked according to its importance in the Rustenburg platinum region. Should
these guidelines and this model be used the chances of setting up a successful,
integrated, cooperative and unified partnership in the Rustenburg platinum region
could be significantly increased. === Thesis (Ph.D. (Sociology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.
|
|---|
