1 the London School of Economics and Political Science Digging
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1 The London School of Economics and Political Science Digging Deeper: Precarious Futures in Two Australian Coal Mining Towns Kari Dahlgren A thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy London, August 2019 2 DECLARATION I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare this thesis consists of 92,482 words. 3 ABSTRACT This thesis contributes to the anthropological literature on the Anthropocene through an ethnography of coal mining communities directly affected by contemporary changes in the fossil fuel industry. It will argue that coal is a specific material around which historic and future collective imaginations pivot. Therefore, it is central to the theoretical discussion of the Anthropocene as well as national and international political debates. The political discussion around coal in Australia is stuck in a binary ‘jobs versus the environment’ discourse. However, this thesis will show how the issues facing coal communities are significantly more complex. Rather than diametrically opposed, concerns about ‘jobs’ and ‘environment’ are both implicated in questions of precarious livelihoods. This thesis will highlight the lived transition for those whose lives are embedded in an Anthropocenic past and present, but who face increasingly unknown futures. The thesis draws on twenty months of fieldwork within two coal mining communities in Australia: Moranbah in Central Queensland and Singleton in the Upper Hunter Valley of New South Wales. The findings from the first fieldsite describe the many changes to the labour force resulting from a weakening labour unionism, increased labour casualisation, and a growth of fly-in-fly-out workforces. Those from the second fieldsite direct attention to land-use conflicts and the anticipatory practices of the community as people imagine the future of their region beyond coal through the mechanisms of state planning bodies and landscape rehabilitation. The two perspectives illuminate the interplay between precarious lives built around the Australian coal mining industry and complex moral debates about the future of coal in Australia. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION .......................................................................................................................... 2 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. 3 FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................... 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................... 8 GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................... 11 CONVERSION AND PSEUDONYMS .................................................................................... 12 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 13 The Climate Wars: The Political Centrality of Coal in Australia ................................................... 20 The World’s Quarry: A Brief History of Australian Coal ............................................................... 23 FIELDSITES AND METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................... 32 -Moranbah, Queensland: Labour Precarity in Coking Coal Mining Town ..................................................... 35 -The Upper Hunter Valley: Land-Use Conflicts and Climate Concerns ......................................................... 41 LAYERS OF PRECARITY IN THE ANTHROPOCENE ................................................................................ 48 TOWARDS AN EXPERIENCED ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE ANTHROPOCENE .......................................... 51 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS ............................................................................................................ 60 PART ONE: PRECARIOUS LABOUR AND LIVELIHOODS IN MORANBAH, QUEENSLAND ....................................................................................................................... 64 INTRODUCTION TO MORANBAH: ............................................................................................... 65 CHAPTER ONE: ‘NOTHING BUT SCRUB’: THE SPATIALITY OF LABOUR PRECARITY IN MORANBAH, QUEENSLAND ................................................................. 80 THE SPATIALITY OF PARTIAL LABOUR COMMODIFICATION .............................................................. 83 INDIGENOUS DISPOSSESSION AND THE MAKING OF THE FRONTIER ................................................... 87 BUILDING MORANBAH: ENVIRONMENTALISM IN A PIONEER TOWN ON THE RESOURCE FRONTIER 95 MODULARITY AND DISTANCE-ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES ............................................................... 108 FROM FRONTIER TO OASIS: THE INCREASING PRECARITY OF LABOUR AND LIFE ......................... 113 -The Cyclical Commodity Cycle ...................................................................................................... 115 -Casualisation .................................................................................................................................. 116 -Long-Distance Commuting ........................................................................................................... 119 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................ 123 5 CHAPTER TWO: A PART-TIME MARRIAGE: SHIFT-WORK, THE HOUSEHOLD, AND THE FEMINISATION OF LABOUR IN MORANBAH ........................................... 128 THE MALE-HEADED HOUSEHOLD: GENDERED IMPACT OF ROTATING SHIFT WORK ....................... 132 PRECARITY, GENDER, AND THE HOUSEHOLD: A FEMINIST CONTRIBUTION ..................................... 140 THE FEMINISATION OF LABOUR AND NEW FORMS OF FLEXIBILITY ................................................ 144 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................ 157 CHAPTER THREE: BLAMING IN THE BOOM AND BUST: THE FIGURES OF THE CASHED-UP-BOGAN AND THE REAL ESTATE SPECULATOR ................................ 160 THE CASHED-UP-BOGAN AND THE BOGANAIRE ................................................................................. 165 THE REAL ESTATE SPECULATOR ....................................................................................................... 180 HOUSING IN MORANBAH: FROM LABOUR SOLIDARITY TO THE LONG-DISTANCE COMMUTE .......... 186 MORAL ACCUSATIONS OF GREED ...................................................................................................... 191 XENOPHOBIA AND GROWING NATIONALIST POPULISM .................................................................... 199 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................ 211 PART TWO: PRECARIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL FUTURES IN THE UPPER HUNTER VALLEY, NSW ................................................................................................. 214 INTRODUCTION TO SINGLETON AND THE UPPER HUNTER VALLEY ........................... 215 CHAPTER FOUR: THE MORAL CASE FOR COAL: AMBIGUITY AND COMPLICITY WITH PRO-COAL LOBBYISTS .......................................................................................... 220 THE WORK OF THE COAL COMMUNITY CONFERENCE ..................................................................... 224 THE COMMUNITY OF COMPLICITY IN THE CCC ............................................................................... 231 MORAL DISCOURSES OF COAL AND CLIMATE CHANGE .................................................................... 236 INTERGENERATIONAL MORAL ACCUSATION AND THE EDUCATION PROJECT ................................ 241 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................ 251 CHAPTER FIVE: MINE, VINES AND EQUINES: THE SCALE-MAKING OF LAND USE CONFLICTS IN THE UPPER HUNTER VALLEY ................................................... 255 DRAYTON SOUTH AND THE PLANNING ASSESSMENT COMMISSION’S SCALE-MAKING ................... 263 COMMUNITY SPONSORSHIP AND HISTORY: ANGLO AMERICAN’S CLAIM TO THE REGION ............. 272 RURALITY AND REPUTATION: THE THOROUGHBRED INDUSTRY’S APPEAL TO THE REGION ........... 280 FROM NIMBY TO PARIS: SCALES OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGAGEMENT ......................................... 284 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................ 290 CHAPTER SIX: THE FINAL VOIDS: SOLASTALGIA AND SPECULATIVE