This paper analyzes how safety regulations implemented in the new mining companies in DR Congo are perceived, adopted or contested by the employees. The focus will be on corporate policies regarding individual responsibility and over-regulation.
Paper long abstract:
Safety policies are a key element of the codes of conduct of many of the new mining companies, which see safety training as a way to avoid (inter)national scandals. Safety is established by either enforcing disciplinary sanctions in the workplace or through training programs. Drawing on ethnographic research within different departments and the expat camp of a Sino-Australian company working in the Katanga region of DR Congo, this paper examines contemporary safety practices by applying a Foucauldian perspective. More specifically, the analysis will try to answer a central question: which strategies are in place to make the new policies acceptable to the workers and which modes of resistance do they incite? A new safety system implemented by the company, which is controversial among the workers, and dealing with an emerging culture of responsibility and overregulation, will be examined as a case study. Rules and regulations are perceived by many as a way to experience a modern and well-organized reality, in contrast to the disorder of the Congolese political and economic situation. By analyzing safety and management practices, this paper contributes to an understanding of mining companies as providing a form of government which promotes shared principles and values.