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NUMSA's Socially Owned Renewable Energy Proposal (2012) in Response to the Green Economy Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis

In 2012 the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) published their 9th National Congress Final Economic Resolutions” (2012) which included a resolution of their proposal on ‘Building a Socially Owned Renewable Energy Sector in SA'. This proposal was primarily in response to the South...

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Main Author: French, Lara
Other Authors: Pressend, Michelle
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Eng
Published: Department of Sociology 2024
Subjects:
Sociology
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access_status_str Open Access
author French, Lara
author2 Pressend, Michelle
author_browse French, Lara
Pressend, Michelle
author_facet Pressend, Michelle
French, Lara
author_sort French, Lara
collection Thesis
description In 2012 the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) published their 9th National Congress Final Economic Resolutions” (2012) which included a resolution of their proposal on ‘Building a Socially Owned Renewable Energy Sector in SA'. This proposal was primarily in response to the South African government's 2010 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) which set out a twenty-year plan to increase South Africa's renewable energy sources through public-private partnerships. The South African government's IRP and its emphasis on privatisation, green technology and green jobs can be seen as an expression of the South African government's adoption of the neoliberal green economy discourse. The problem that this research analyses is: in what ways could NUMSA's 2012 alternative proposal on socially owned renewable energy address South Africa's green economy response? This research uses a critical discourse analysis (CDA) understanding of discourse analysis where the content of discourses is not the predominant focus but also significant is the ways in which discourse manifests and interacts with social power relations and how this results in inequality and the dominance of certain groups of people over others. This research likewise does not simply describe the South African government's green economy discourse but also exposes the power relations behind it and in doing so assert the need for alternatives such as NUMSA's proposal. The research uses CDA to position NUMSA's alternative proposal of socially owned renewable energy within NUMSA's rejection of the green economy discourse as well as their interpretation of the just transition discourse. The research uses J.W. Moore's theory of the Capitalocene as a conceptual framework. It uses the Capitalocene to critique the way in which the IRP and the green economy discourse, as well as NUMSA's proposal, contain within them productivist thinking. The research goes on to show that NUMSA's proposal for socially owned renewable energy as a response to the South African government's renewable energy policy is based on the alternative theories such as ecosocialism and energy democracy. It concludes with using the Capitalocene's relational thinking, as well as degrowth and postwork, to show that there is a need for more transformative thinking in NUMSA's proposal for a socially owned renewable energy sector.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/39322
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language English
Eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:31:54.917Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2024
publishDateRange 2024
publishDateSort 2024
publisher Department of Sociology
publisherStr Department of Sociology
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/39322 NUMSA's Socially Owned Renewable Energy Proposal (2012) in Response to the Green Economy Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis French, Lara Pressend, Michelle Sociology In 2012 the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) published their 9th National Congress Final Economic Resolutions” (2012) which included a resolution of their proposal on ‘Building a Socially Owned Renewable Energy Sector in SA'. This proposal was primarily in response to the South African government's 2010 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) which set out a twenty-year plan to increase South Africa's renewable energy sources through public-private partnerships. The South African government's IRP and its emphasis on privatisation, green technology and green jobs can be seen as an expression of the South African government's adoption of the neoliberal green economy discourse. The problem that this research analyses is: in what ways could NUMSA's 2012 alternative proposal on socially owned renewable energy address South Africa's green economy response? This research uses a critical discourse analysis (CDA) understanding of discourse analysis where the content of discourses is not the predominant focus but also significant is the ways in which discourse manifests and interacts with social power relations and how this results in inequality and the dominance of certain groups of people over others. This research likewise does not simply describe the South African government's green economy discourse but also exposes the power relations behind it and in doing so assert the need for alternatives such as NUMSA's proposal. The research uses CDA to position NUMSA's alternative proposal of socially owned renewable energy within NUMSA's rejection of the green economy discourse as well as their interpretation of the just transition discourse. The research uses J.W. Moore's theory of the Capitalocene as a conceptual framework. It uses the Capitalocene to critique the way in which the IRP and the green economy discourse, as well as NUMSA's proposal, contain within them productivist thinking. The research goes on to show that NUMSA's proposal for socially owned renewable energy as a response to the South African government's renewable energy policy is based on the alternative theories such as ecosocialism and energy democracy. It concludes with using the Capitalocene's relational thinking, as well as degrowth and postwork, to show that there is a need for more transformative thinking in NUMSA's proposal for a socially owned renewable energy sector. 2024-04-09T08:54:20Z 2024-04-09T08:54:20Z 2023 2024-04-09T08:45:25Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39322 en Eng application/pdf Department of Sociology Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Sociology
French, Lara
NUMSA's Socially Owned Renewable Energy Proposal (2012) in Response to the Green Economy Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis
thesis_degree_str Master's
title NUMSA's Socially Owned Renewable Energy Proposal (2012) in Response to the Green Economy Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis
title_full NUMSA's Socially Owned Renewable Energy Proposal (2012) in Response to the Green Economy Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis
title_fullStr NUMSA's Socially Owned Renewable Energy Proposal (2012) in Response to the Green Economy Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis
title_full_unstemmed NUMSA's Socially Owned Renewable Energy Proposal (2012) in Response to the Green Economy Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis
title_short NUMSA's Socially Owned Renewable Energy Proposal (2012) in Response to the Green Economy Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis
title_sort numsa s socially owned renewable energy proposal 2012 in response to the green economy discourse a critical discourse analysis
topic Sociology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39322
work_keys_str_mv AT frenchlara numsassociallyownedrenewableenergyproposal2012inresponsetothegreeneconomydiscourseacriticaldiscourseanalysis

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