ABSTRACT
There are several commentaries on the increased demand for natural resources in Southern Africa. The commentaries focus on the rationales behind the surge, the social and environmental impacts, the unevenness in gains, marginalisation and dispossessions of vulnerable groups and the resistance it engenders. However, most of these analyses hardly pay attention to theory. Yet theory gives deeper insights into a problem and shows how it can be addressed. This article takes a theoretical turn. According to Jürgen Habermas the modern society consists of functionally differentiated spheres: the economy (market), administration (state) and life world (social world). Whereas the first two systems adopt instrumental-rational means to solve problems, the life world is anchored in communicative rationality and oriented towards the common good. The differential logics of the two systems and the life world lead to tensions. In the Habermasian formulation of social ontology, deliberative practice is necessary where norms and practices have become problematic. The deliberative arena restores the inter-subjectivity of social structures and promotes the interests of forces of social solidarity against the two other mechanisms of the social order. The article utilises Habermas’ views on social relations in the analysis of processes within the natural resource sector and argues that a deliberative practice guided by regulative criteria that impose limits on how individuals and groups competing for distribution of social and economic goods ought to reason, can help address the legitimation crisis. The envisaged criteria reflect social and economic justice, and anticipate the realisation of the good life, the common good.
