Thesis
Interest groups and the Landcare Forum: how do they influence sustainability in rural Australia?
Southern Cross University, School of Social and Workplace Development
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Southern Cross University
1998
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Abstract
Over a period of three years, I worked and researched with four rural communities and a State Government in an action research orientated project. I focused on relationships between rural community groups (including Landcare) and issues of ecologically sustainable development/natural resource management. In 'working' I wore three hats; post-graduate student; as a State Government employee (in three of the case studies) and in one case, community activist.
Given that so many commentators speak of Landcare in revolutionary language and as an inspirational piece of public policy for community and government partnerships, I wanted to determine the degree to which community Landcare groups could or should broaden their environmental focus to include a broader array of issues affecting the sustainability of, both primary and post primary production orientated, rural communities. However as a result of the case studies a more fundamental issue emerged - how interest groups engage in the Landcare forum and how such processes influence sustainability in rural Australia.
The research was largely critical in theory and participatory in practice. Community members in each of the four rural communities pursued a diversity of activities in the context of the research, based on their interpretations of the project and their own objectives. These ranged from increasing profitability to environmental protection. Methods observed for achieving the various objectives included local participation, regional, state and national representation, local advocacy combined with government and legal intervention. Self-help as well as welfare modes of community development were observed.
That Landcare is heralded as of national and international significance, affirmed that an analysis of Landcare practice, for example through community development, public policy and critical theory, was warranted. As a result, the argument that Landcare is not constituted as an oppositional movement of the state, but as an 'instrument' of the state (Martin & Halpin, 1996) whilst accurate theoretically, was not always apparent in practice. Furthermore, when Landcare becomes oppositional and interest groups try to remould iron triangles of stable privileged interests (between producers, politicians and governments) with new actors, conflict can arise. This is particularly so in post primary production orientated rural communities.
Moreover this thesis argues that Landcare can more accurately resemble a forum than a movement or an organisation; a forum in which different interest groups participate in order to influence public policy and resource allocation. Landcare represents a place where interest groups converge in a collision of ideologies with people participating from across the political spectrum. Models of representative and participatory democracy, relief aid and community development, community empowerment and government control collide in the pursuit of various agendas.
These differing and at times competing interests, ranging from those seeking fundamental change to those tinkering on the edges, to those seeking to maintain the status quo are illustrated. A Landcare Pendulum is presented which provides a new and fluid way of conceptualising Landcare within interest group theory. This has implications for four types of intervention analysed in the thesis and how interventionists engage with interest groups. Moreover, transferring government supported and funded programs between subcultures can be problematic when conflicting ideologies and associated interest groups and powers are concerned.
As the Federal Government's Decade of Landcare nears completion, this thesis presents readers with new ways of thinking about and viewing Landcare in Australia. As a result, many of the findings raised by the thesis point the direction for policy modification and further research.
Details
- Title
- Interest groups and the Landcare Forum: how do they influence sustainability in rural Australia?
- Creators
- Patrick Joseph Morrisey
- Contributors
- Lyn Carson (Supervisor) - Southern Cross UniversityGeoffrey Lawrence (Supervisor)Ortrun Zuber-Skerritt (Supervisor) - Southern Cross UniversityBob Dick (Supervisor) - Southern Cross University
- Awarding Institution
- Southern Cross University; Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Theses
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Southern Cross University
- Publisher
- Southern Cross University, School of Social and Workplace Development
- Number of pages
- xxix, 361
- Identifiers
- 991012960800502368
- Copyright
- © Patrick J Morrisey 1998
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Business, Law and Arts
- Resource Type
- Thesis