Jo-Anne EveringhamSustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland
Jo-Anne Everingham is a senior research fellow at UQ’s Centre for Social Responsibility in the Sustainable Minerals Institute. She is a social scientist interested in company-community relations and systems to enhance community well-being and tackle so-called ‘wicked problems’.
Her applied sociological studies of mining communities especially in rural and regional Australia examine local development impacts, as well as exploring social policy and management of social risks and impacts. Recent projects include:
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Conference Speakers
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Abstract
Engaging communities in planning for closure and post-mining land uses with a utility goal.
An agreed beneficial land use post-mining is a goal of mine rehabilitation in most Australian jurisdictions. Current guidelines also usually require consultation with stakeholders. However, there is little evidence that rehabilitation and closure planning processes incorporate the perceptions of potential future land-users about the utility of ex-mining leases and associated opportunities and risks. Arguably, there is more attention paid to ensuring ex-mine lands are safe, stable and non-polluting than to the utility of such sites. Unclear and unformulated approaches to rehabilitation and mine closure pose environmental risks and economic burdens for mining companies, government and the surrounding industries and communities (Fourie & Brent, 2006). Science and technology will not provide all the answers any more than regulation and legal frameworks can. Drawing on CSRM’s research about cumulative impacts of mining and mine closure scenarios especially in North and Central Queensland, this presentation outlines key characteristics of stakeholder input that is essential to providing a pathway to more functional outcomes. In outlines key considerations about Who?, What?, Why?, When?, and How to engage with mining affected communities.
Engaging communities in planning for closure and post-mining land uses with a utility goal.
An agreed beneficial land use post-mining is a goal of mine rehabilitation in most Australian jurisdictions. Current guidelines also usually require consultation with stakeholders. However, there is little evidence that rehabilitation and closure planning processes incorporate the perceptions of potential future land-users about the utility of ex-mining leases and associated opportunities and risks. Arguably, there is more attention paid to ensuring ex-mine lands are safe, stable and non-polluting than to the utility of such sites. Unclear and unformulated approaches to rehabilitation and mine closure pose environmental risks and economic burdens for mining companies, government and the surrounding industries and communities (Fourie & Brent, 2006). Science and technology will not provide all the answers any more than regulation and legal frameworks can. Drawing on CSRM’s research about cumulative impacts of mining and mine closure scenarios especially in North and Central Queensland, this presentation outlines key characteristics of stakeholder input that is essential to providing a pathway to more functional outcomes. In outlines key considerations about Who?, What?, Why?, When?, and How to engage with mining affected communities.
Workshop Précis
An appreciative enquiry approach to a mine closure as a reservoir of possibilities
Jo-Anne Everingham- Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland
An appreciative enquiry approach to a mine closure as a reservoir of possibilities
Jo-Anne Everingham- Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland
‘Appreciative enquiry’ is a forward-looking strategy for ‘systematic discovery’ of constructive capacity or positive potential and a sound way to build collaborative capacity. This workshop will experience in brief an example of ‘participatory science’, a community change process that mobilises people’s ability to enquire, understand and anticipate by posing a ‘positive question’. Rather than focus on problems, and deficits in a situation or system, or a set of problems to be solved, this approach suggests that those with a stake in the future uses and performance of post-production land can relate to it as a “reservoir of possibility”. The full appreciative enquiry process consists of four stages – Discovery, Dream, Design and Destiny. In the workshop, the first three stages will be applied to a hypothetical case as per the table below.
Appreciative enquiry of a closure proposition
Posing a question: e.g. What would this land look like and how would it function if it was converted to a beneficial post-mining land use?
Appreciative enquiry of a closure proposition
Posing a question: e.g. What would this land look like and how would it function if it was converted to a beneficial post-mining land use?
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Stage of Appreciative enquiry
Discover / data gathering “What is the best of what has been done?” Dream “What might be achieved here?” Design and dialogue “What will make it happen?” Destiny/ demonstration/ delivery “What will result?” |
Tasks at that stage
Ground the discussion in evidence of real situation: experiences, studies, etc of what has worked well (NOT a wish list) On the basis of those pooling that knowledge of successes, express a shared vision of a possible and desirable future – a collective aspiration Identify available resources, skills and expertise and ways to use them to bridge from ‘what is’ to ‘what might be’ (these will normally be locale-specific) The connection, cooperation and co-creation of earlier stages will bear fruit as a change as an improved system |
The exercise will illustrate how doing this in a workshop setting maximises the potential to gain, manage and leverage knowledge from a variety of sources and experiences.
Presentation
Engaging communities in planning for closure and post-mining land uses with a utility goal
Presented on 12th April 2018 at the 8th Annual Best Practice Ecological Rehabilitation of Mined Lands Conference (2018)
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