Local Governance Structures and Their Role in Mobilising Community Action: A Case of Recreational Facilities in Mining Towns in the Copperbelt Province

Abstract

This paper explores the role of local governance structures at community level in mobilising community action in the redevelopment of recreational facilities in former mine townships in the Copperbelt Province. These facilities are experiencing a management quandary resulting from the privatisation of the mining conglomerate, ZCCM, in the late 1990s. This paper argues that every society has a way of reorganising itself when such vacuums in management occur. Growing literature places this research agenda within “self-organising”, “co-production”, “self-managing”, etc. Underpinning these self-organising processes are local governance structures devised by communities themselves, which include various actors being involved in the decision making and management processes for community development. In modern societies, the role of these structures is often underplayed and only realised when a vacuum appears in the management as is the case for formerly mine-owned recreational facilities in Copperbelt towns. A multi-case study approach was adopted in this mixed method research to determine the communities’ ability to regenerate the dilapidated recreation centres. The research found that the communities had the social capital required to drive the regeneration process, exhibited by the benevolence shown to each other, the willingness to participate in activities at the recreation centres and the availability of self-organising associations. Additionally, the local structures were able to self-organise and participate in decision making and management required for successful community development.