Rural Community and Rural Resilience: What is important to farmers in keeping their country towns alive?
Introduction
Australia’s rural towns exhibit great diversity, ranging from traditional agricultural service centres and localities associated with farming and grazing to mining towns, non-metropolitan tourist towns and remote Australian communities such as Aboriginal outstations and island communities (Pritchard and McManus, 2000, Gray and Lawrence, 2001, Hugo, 2005). Although many small towns close to major urban areas are increasing in population as a result of overspill (Connell and McManus, 2011), it has become fashionable to talk of, or predict, an inexorable decline in small rural centres if these places lie outside the orbit of rural gentrification. For example, many country towns, often located in dryland agricultural regions far from major urban centres, have been associated with decline and death, with images of coffins and the passing of an era and a way of life (Country Shire Councils Association and Country Urban Councils Association Working Party, 1990, Forth, 2000 and Forth and Howell, 2002). These towns fit the profile of what Lowe and Ward (2009) label “deep rural”. They “seem to lack sufficient symbolic resources to attract in those socio-economic classes that are underpinning the vibrancy of the “commuter” categories” (Lowe and Ward, 2009, 1324) or the sea-change and tree-change towns of Australia (Burnley, 1988, Burnley and Murphy, 1995, Burnley and Murphy, 2002, Burnley and Murphy, 2004, Smailes, 2000). To make such sweeping claims about vast areas of inland Australia is, of course, fraught with danger.
The notion of rural decline in Australia is firmly established in the literature (Forth, 2000, Forth and Howell, 2002) and is supported by demographic trends which depict many small rural centres in more remote settings gradually shrinking in population (Walmsley et al., forthcoming). There have been a number of local, state and national strategies to address economic and population imbalances between large cities, larger regional centres and smaller towns in Australia (Pritchard and McManus, 2000, Beer et al., 2003, Haslam-McKenzie and Tonts, 2005). Recognition that those strategies have largely failed to shift the path of local development, and of the limitations of government power in this policy arena, have stirred the notion of death and decline of many places (see Sorensen, 2002, Sorensen, 2003, Sorensen et al., 2007, Hearfield and Sorensen, 2009). In Europe and North America there have been similar concerns about the fate of small towns and rural areas as economic and demographic pressures are brought to bear on vulnerable rural communities, reinforced in some cases by changes in governance structures and tempered by a recognition of demographic shifts towards favoured rural areas, a trend that is similar to the Australian situation (Norris-Baker, 1999, Blevins, 2000, Johnson, 2003, Burnley and Murphy, 2004, Costello, 2007, Davies, 2008, Kasimis, 2008, Wood, 2008, Carr and Kefalas, 2009, Hall and Stern, 2009). For example, Popper and Popper (1987, 14) noted that on the Great Plains of the USA, “many small towns are emptying and ageing at an all-time high rate, and some are dying”.
Despite population declines and an emphasis by many of the above authors on economic drivers, Smailes (2000, 178) concluded that “place-identity, sense of belonging and primary social contact patterns are subject to much greater inertia [than economic functions such as shopping trips]”. The importance of social engagement is highlighted by Hamin and Marcucci (2008, 469) who identify “structures of expectation” that are built on the shared experience of a region. This shared experience can extend beyond primary social contacts, such as face-to-face contact, to include telephone and email conversations.
Thus, while some argue that economics are driving decline, others suggest that a sense of belonging and social participation can mitigate against such decline. Research has tended to adopt one of the above arguments, rather than exploring a range of factors in the lives of farmers in or near these towns. The resilience of small rural communities in Australia, despite the loss of agricultural employment, is therefore a story yet to be adequately explored (see Rogers and Collins, 2001, Alston, 2004).
This paper explores rural resilience in two rural regions in Australia’s heartlands, comparing economic, social and environmental issues perceived as important by farmers in maintaining their local towns. The study crosses a number of themes identified by Ryser and Halseth (2010) in their overview of rural economic development research (see Table 1, p. 512). Following a review of literature on rural resilience and rural communities from an interactional perspective, we introduce the two case studies, present the research methods, provide quantitative and qualitative findings from our research and then review these results in relation to resilience in rural communities. We conclude with recommendations for rural policy, emphasising that the resilience of rural communities is not about the social versus the economic, but involves maintaining a range of aspects of community of place, including a viable local economy, the quality of the local environment and a strong sense of belonging among residents.
Section snippets
Resilience in Australian rural communities
Research in Australia and elsewhere has at times hypothesised that farm enterprises and rural service centres are “uncoupling” (eg. Stayner and Reeve, 1990). That is to say, the traditional bonds that tied farmers to local rural service centres are weakening as improvements in communications (both transport and telecommunications) and changing on-farm practices free farm enterprises from reliance on “the local”. Notwithstanding farmers’ continuing commercial allegiances to local suppliers – the
Background to the case studies
In order to explore the social, economic and environmental linkages between farmers and their communities, we developed a research methodology that enabled us to learn about both formal and informal social interaction and sense of belonging among rural producers in two case study sites, Lachlan and the Northern Tablelands (Fig. 1). Questions on these topics were embedded within a larger questionnaire that also explored the changing nature of farm activity. The current study concentrates on
Research methods
As part of our research we undertook 115 face-to-face interviews with farmers from the two case study regions. They were recruited using a random sampling methodology and drawn from rate-payer database records obtained from the three local governments in the target areas. We deleted town-based and non-local farm owners from the list, together with “rural residential” populations who appeared to reside on farms for lifestyle reasons. The latter involved applying a minimum farm size, 100 ha for
Results
The above methods yielded important results, which are presented below, focusing first on population trends, then community spirit and participation, followed by various aspects that represent specific social fields. Finally, perceptions of the social fields are analysed statistically to identify which contribute most to a holistic sense of community spirit.
Discussion: community fields promoting resilience
It seems significant that despite a decade of regional population loss, economic difficulties and (especially pertinent to Lachlan) the experience of living through one of the most severe droughts in a century, farmers generally did not hold the view that social and community life was deteriorating. The regression analysis modelling suggests that perceptions of the environment are important to resilience, along with feelings of belonging, the local economy and community spirit over time. It
Conclusion
The importance of farmers’ contributions to rural towns can be easily overlooked when considering the relative position of agriculture in the Australian economy and the decline in the number of farmers in Australia. Our study highlights that farmers continue to make a valuable contribution to the economic (Pritchard et al., 2011) and social life of rural communities. Our findings are relevant, inasmuch as they complicate other published accounts of community change in rural Australia which show
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Alison McIntosh and Terryll Cassidy for their assistance with this research. We also acknowledge the helpful contribution of two diligent referees and the editor of this journal in improving the article over time. Finally, we are grateful that this research was supported by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project scheme (ARCDP0771418 – Australia’s Rural Heartlands: Declining Economic Fortune or Dynamic Regional Adjustment?).
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