Microsoft Word - PhD Thesis Final.pdf - University of Limpopo ...

affected the Makgabeng communities. Migrant labour system has always
been mainly related to the European (capitalist) expansion and the mineral
revolution in South Africa, especially the discovery of diamonds and gold,
which accelerated that phenomenon.
One of the theoretical propositions on identity creation is that interaction
with others plays a significant role in identity formation 511 . Interaction of the
Makgabeng migrant labourers with other labourers from other areas created
new identities which were eventually exported back to Makgabeng. No
wonder the migrant labour system came to impact on remote and rural
areas such as Makgabeng. Again, the gathering of migrant labourers from
different parts of South Africa – and other workers from other parts of the
world – in working areas such as the mines, represented the movement of
people and ideas all over the world, a phenomenon which was later known
as globalisation. This phenomenon is closely related to identity creation and
on this point Castells’s declared that “[o]ur world is, and our lives, are being
shaped by the conflicting trends of globalization [sic] and identity” 512 . This is
because the structuring of capitalism, like the South African mineral
revolution referred to earlier, according to Castells, has induced a new form
of society, the network society 513 . According to M. Burawoy (2000), as
capitalism spread across the world, the truth of the local moved outside
511 R. Jenkins, Social Identity, p. 22.
512 M. Castells, Information Age, p. 1.
513 Ibid, p. 1.
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