Nicholas J Gill

Stewardship among lifestyle oriented rural landowners.

Changes in landownership associated with amenity migration are affecting the demographic, cadastral and ecological conditions of rural landscapes. These changes and concerns about their impacts on natural resource management, including ecological conservation, relate to both the structural consequences of landownership change, land subdivision and to the motivations, management ability and attitudes of lifestyle oriented rural landowners. Based on an Australian case study near Sydney, NSW, this paper examines the motivations and practices of such landowners, assesses potential consequences for vegetation and characterises the landowners according to three stewardship types.

Community and nostalgia in urban revitalisation: a critique of urban village and creative class strategies as remedies for social 'problems'

Abstract We examine how normative constructions of ‘the creative city’ have entered into Australian planning discourses. Although welcoming a place-based approach, critical consideration is given to how the misappropriation of ‘place making’ in creative city revitalisation plans may enhance rather than address processes of social marginalisation. A Foucauldian framework is employed, exploring the notion of the social production of power through discourse. We draw on a case study of Wentworth Street, a key urban space in Port Kembla, the industrialised district of Wollongong, New South Wales. The study focuses on various ideas of a common place-making theme of the ‘urban village’ evoked by planners, the media and a targeted local resident group (here elderly Macedonians) for a street positioned in ‘crisis’ because of declining infrastructure, services and its association with crime, drugs and prostitution. The case study demonstrates that marginalisation and exclusions are products of creative city strategies and wider, more oppressive urban discourses. But we also demonstrate that despite becoming normative in the texts of planning policies, discourses of place and identity always remain multiple, negotiated, and contradictory.

Household Sustainability: Challenges and Dilemmas in Everyday Life

Contents: Introduction 1. Having a Baby 2. Spaghetti Bolognese 3. Clothes 4. Water 5. Warmth 6. Toilets 7. Laundry 8. Furniture 9. Plastic Bags 10. Driving Cars 11. Flying 12. The Refrigerator 13. Screens 14. Mobile Phones 15. Solar Hot Water 16. The Garden 17. Christmas 18. Retirement 19. Death 20. Conclusion References Index

Walking practice and suburban nature-talk

Drawing on recent conceptualisations of ‘performativity’ this article examines the experiential knowledge of a heterogenous group of people who regularly walk through a maze of criss-crossing paths in a relatively flat suburban Australian reserve. Attention is given to how routine walking can be conceptualised as one way of ‘doing’ nature. Routine walking is conceptualised as a territory-making process. Mindful of the social context and bodily experience, walking offers insights into the possibilities of making points of connection with the performances of plants and animals. While experiential knowledge from habitual walking illustrates the blurring of culture–nature dichotomies, walkers still rely on the fiction of the distinction that divides them to make sense of self and place. To elicit a more conversational narrative and tap into the lived experiences of walking, our methodological approach relied upon photography. How respondents express a type of care for, and protect animals and plants in a territory understood as their own backyard has direct relevance to recent discussions of the role residents can play in the current and future environmental management of suburban reserves and parks.

Sustainable household capability: which households are doing the work of environmental sustainability?

Abstract This paper presents a framework for analysing which households are doing ‘their bit’ for sustainability in an era of climate change, using a two-stage cluster analysis of sustainable household capabilities. The framework segments households by their reported level of commitment to ‘pro-sustainability’ practices common to conventional government policies. Results are presented from a large-scale survey of Wollongong households, New South Wales, Australia. Results illustrate the importance of approaching household sustainability through everyday practices. Attention is drawn to the wide variation in participation in specific household sustainability practices. Investigation into sustainable household capability by household segments shows the limits of even the most committed households. Results show the importance of socio-cultural contexts in differentiating sustainable household capabilities—with women, suburban-detached households and lower income segments of the population ultimately doing most of the work of being sustainable.

Zones of friction, zones of traction: the connected household in climate change and sustainability policy

Households are increasingly addressed as a focus of environmental policy, with varying degrees of success in achieving more sustainable outcomes at the domestic level. Part of the problem is black boxing, in which the inherent complexity of households tends to be taken for granted. Here we draw on cultural environmental research to put forward a more sophisticated conceptualisation – the connected household approach. The connected household framework uses the themes of governance, materiality and practice to illustrate and explain the ways everyday life, and the internal politics of households, are connected to wider systems of provision and socioeconomic networks. We introduce ‘zones of friction’ and ‘zones of traction’ to illustrate different pathways of connection between the spheres. Friction and traction can help decision-makers think through the possibilities and constraints of working at the household scale. The approach is illustrated using the example of water, with a focus on the variable success of water tanks in reducing mains water consumption during the millennium drought.

What is the problem? Usefulness, the cultural turn, and social research for natural resource management

Abstract One strand of criticism of the ‘cultural turn’ in geography and other disciplines is that it produces research that is of limited ‘usefulness’ and has disarmed academics. This paper argues that elements of the critique of the cultural turn are overstated. It then argues that criticism of the ‘usefulness’ of cultural research rests on simplistic assumptions concerning the relationship of the social research to users such as policy makers. The problem is depicted as largely related to the nature of the information flowing to ‘users’. Such assumptions are critiqued through discussing the concept of ‘use’, influences on the use of research, and models of relationships between ‘users’ and researchers. Finally, the paper argues that a key issue in the relationship between policy making and social sciences is the users’ expectations. A recent example from research in natural resource management (NRM) policy making shows that ‘users’ of social science research can have a questionable foundation from which to assess social research. This example also points to clear roles for cultural research in NRM. The problem of connecting with policy makers is multidimensional. It is one for social researchers as a whole and it includes the norms and practices regarding nature and natural resources of potential ‘users’.

Aboriginal pastoralism, social embeddedness, and cultural continuity in central Australia

ABSTRACT Aboriginal people are involved in pastoral enterprises throughout the inland and north of Australia. This has generated difficulties as landowners and policymakers struggled with conflicts between Aboriginal social structures and the demands of running commercial businesses. Problems often arose due to imposition of nonindigenous norms regarding land use. It has been suggested that pastoralism can generate social and cultural benefits for Aboriginal landowners, but these have not been investigated in any detail. Drawing on the concept of social embeddedness and fieldwork with Aboriginal pastoralists, this article identifies, describes, and ranks sociocultural benefits arising from Aboriginal pastoralism. Pastoralism fulfilled uniquely Aboriginal aims and was most important for its role in Aboriginal social and cultural and reproduction. In the Aboriginal context, pastoralism should be conceived in terms that include these Aboriginal motivations and that recognize the social embeddedness of pastoralism.

An archaeology of historical reality? A case study of the recent past

Abstract An Aboriginal elder, an archaeologist and a geographer report on an interdisciplinary project about colonial-era settlement in the Murchison and Davenport ranges in the Northern Territory. Oral history, physical evidence and historical records reveal a distinct central Australian cultural landscape and show that archaeology can do more than merely exhume material to support historical ‘realities’. This project provides new or improved understandings of (1) colonial technology in pastoral ventures, (2) continuity and change in Aboriginal life following European arrival, (3) social behaviour in colonial settings, and (4) alternatives to Eurocentric Australian histories.

Landscape Preferences, Amenity, and Bushfire Risk in New South Wales, Australia

This paper examines landscape preferences of residents in amenity-rich bushfire-prone landscapes in New South Wales, Australia. Insights are provided into vegetation preferences in areas where properties neighbor large areas of native vegetation, such as national parks, or exist within a matrix of cleared and vegetated private and public land. In such areas, managing fuel loads in the proximity of houses is likely to reduce the risk of house loss and damage. Preferences for vegetation appearance and structure were related to varying fuel loads, particularly the density of understorey vegetation and larger trees. The study adopted a qualitative visual research approach, which used ranking and photo-elicitation as part of a broader interview. A visual approach aids in focusing on outcomes of fuel management interventions, for example, by using the same photo scenes to firstly derive residents’ perceptions of amenity and secondly, residents’ perceptions of bushfire risk. The results are consistent with existing research on landscape preferences; residents tend to prefer relatively open woodland or forest landscapes with good visual and physical access but with elements that provoke their interest. Overall, residents’ landscape preferences were found to be consistent with vegetation management that reduces bushfire risk to houses. The terms in which preferences were expressed provide scope for agency engagement with residents in order to facilitate management that meets amenity and hazard reduction goals on private land.