Lynda Cheshire

Neoliberalism, Individualisation and Community: Regional Restructuring in Australia

Since the early 1980s, Australian governments have embraced neoliberal policies as a means of improving the nations global economic competitiveness. The impacts of such policies in regional areas have been quite profound, leading to socio-economic polarisation, population loss, and the growth of anti-globalisation sentiments. In this paper, we examine the process of regional restructuring that arises from this trajectory in Australia, and examine current policy responses to change under the neoliberal regime. We argue that while many such responses are individualistic, and based upon policies of personal responsibility, self-advancement and entrepreneurship, others are imbued with the language of community, social capital and collective action. The existence of individualism and community within the same policy agenda may appear contradictory, yet it is suggested that neoliberalism brings together these two opposing discourses through a process of what Nikolas Rose calls ‘governing through community’. We explore how neoliberalism underpins community approaches to regional development in Australia, arguing that such strategies do little to counter the negative forces of globalisation in non-metropolitan parts of the country.

Qualitative researchers’ understandings of their practice and the implications for data archiving and sharing

With the systematic archiving of qualitative data emerging as a distinct possibility in Australia, both the practices of qualitative research and how subsequent outputs are ‘used’ are coming under increased scrutiny and reflection. Drawing on a series of focus groups with qualitative researchers, this article critically explores the meanings ascribed to qualitative research practice and the perceived challenges posed by contemporary innovations in data management, access, and analysis through electronic archiving. The accounts presented provide much needed insight into key debates (and divergences) within the qualitative community regarding the values and meanings of qualitative practice, but also how contemporary innovations may come to challenge these core values.

Social Interaction and Sense of Community in a Master Planned Community

Master planned communities are becoming the dominant form of new large‐scale housing development in Australia. A characteristic of these developments is the focus on community as a major promotional feature. This resonates well with buyers in a climate in which community (and social capital) has become a catch‐cry of governments and the private sector for a whole range of benefits. However, the case‐study master planned community considered in this research has been the focus of considerable effort by the developer to facilitate community processes beyond the political or marketing level. The research reported in this paper looks at the outcomes of these efforts and shows that while high levels of attachment to place and sense of community are reported by residents, actual social interaction within the master planned community is not generally extensive. While these findings can be seen as being in accord with current notions of changing community form, they have significant implications for developers wishing to facilitate community development in terms of increased social interaction.

The environmental enigma: Why do producers professing stewardship continue to practice poor natural resource management?

Abstract Despite a wide acceptance that primary producers in Australia subscribe to a stewardship ethic, land and water degradation remains an ongoing problem. Recent calculations suggest that the economic cost of Australias environmental degradation is amounting to more than

Governing Rural Development : Discourses and Practices of Self-help in Australian Rural Policy

A3.5 billion a year with an estimated cost of managing (not overcoming) problems of salinity, acidification, soil erosion totalling

The Politics of Housing Consumption: Renters as Flawed Consumers on a Master Planned Estate

A60 billion over the next decade. This paper argues that stewardship itself is an unsatisfactory concept when looking to landholders to respond to environmental problems, for rarely does the attitude of stewardship translate into behaviours of improving natural resource management practices on private land. Whilst there is some acceptance of the environmental problem among primary producers, a number of external constraints may also impede the uptake of conservation-orientated practices. In light of the prevailing accounts of poor adoption of sustainable practices a number of policy options are reviewed in this paper, including formal regional partnerships, regulatory frameworks and market-based measures. It is concluded that the contentious nature of some of these new opportunities for change will mean that any moves aimed at reversing environmental degradation in Australia will be slow.

The Governmentality of Master Planning: Housing Consumption, Aesthetics and Community on a New Estate

In recent decades, the responsibility for initiating regeneration programmes has been placed firmly in the hands of rural communities, with the rationale being that local people are best placed to know their own problems and, consequently, to develop their own solutions. Despite the popularity of this approach, the self-help approach has its own problems and can be seen as an attempt by governments to reduce public spending. This book provides a critical account of the discourses and practices of self-help in contemporary rural development policies of Australia and other western nations. Although it examines the problems of the self-help approach, it moves beyond a straightforward exposition of the impediments to self-help. Instead, taking a Foucauldian governmentality perspective, it puts forward a theoretical analysis of the self-help concept, assessing it as a means of governing rural development in an advanced liberal manner. It argues that self-help should not be regarded as either the empowerment or the abandonment of rural citizens by a shrinking state, but rather the application of new ways of thinking about and acting upon rural development.

Examining Corporate-sector Involvement in the Governance of Selected Mining-intensive Regions in Australia

Master planned estates offer package dreams of homeownership to those wanting to live among others who share their lifestyle aspirations. Yet we show in this paper how divisions can arise between housing tenure types, with owner-occupiers constructing private rental tenants as a problem. Extending Bauman’s concept of the flawed consumer using Rose’s writings on ethopolitics, we show how renters are viewed as failing in three domains of social life: aesthetics, ethics and community by undermining the aesthetic value of the neighbourhood and by failing to demonstrate an ethic of care for themselves and others. As a result, the homeowners in this study try to avoid living among rental properties and are disappointed to find that, contrary to expectations, moving to a master planned estate does not guarantee this.

Privatisation, Security and Community: How Master Planned Estates are Changing Suburban Australia

The emergence of advanced liberalism as a political rationality has been accompanied by a trend towards more privatized forms of governing, in which market actors assume many of the responsibilities that were formerly state-provided. As a result, the problems of rule regarding who or what to govern and by what means are increasingly preoccupying private actors. This paper examines the privatized governmentalities of rules posed by a property developer of a master planned estate, as it seeks to govern the ethical conduct of local residents by governing through community so that they voluntarily maintain the aesthetic standards of the estate, not only for their own benefit, but also out of a sense of commitment to others.

Regional renaissance? New forms of governance in nonmetropolitan Australia

Abstract Mining companies are increasingly urged to contribute to the long-term economic and social well-being of host communities in regional Australia and are attempting to respond to such calls as part of a commitment to corporate social responsibility. Yet the nature and extent of their involvement in local affairs is not fixed or given, but is influenced by a host of factors including the kind of mine in operation, the remoteness of the local area, the presence or absence of other governmental stakeholders and the legacy of prior modes of mining industry intervention. This paper explores these issues in three different contexts: a company town considering normalisation; a mixed-economy region in which mining companies are required to play a greater role in local affairs than previously; and a fly-in, fly-out mine in a remote and sparsely populated region in which such opportunities to contribute to local life are limited. These studies illustrate the shifting responsibilities between public and private sectors, the changing expectations of each actor, and the ambiguity surrounding the responsibility of mining companies to participate in local governance.