Suchergebnisse

Drought is most often encountered as a long‐running and recurring climatic extreme; one that can have devastating environmental, social and economic impacts. While drought is a routine feature of the Australian climate, the politics of drought are often highly reactive, and drought support programs are notoriously ad hoc and ineffective. In the context of emergent global recognition of climate change, drought has received renewed political attention that presents significant opportunities for change. In this paper, we review the context of drought policy in Australia. Yet we seek to provide a unique contribution to current debates by considering the perspectives of those people at the forefront of drought; in particular, those people living and working in small rural towns in drought‐affected areas. The aim of the paper is to use a case study to present an account of drought policies and programs from those who are the targets of such interventions.

AbstractThe article discusses the tensions regarding the challenge to balance agriculture with a proposed coal seam gas mine in Narrabri, a regional centre in New South Wales, Australia, which revolved around notions of youth and 'the future'. 'Youth' as a symbolic category were positioned at the heart of the issues associated with land‐use in the region on both sides of the debate. Young people were described throughout the study as an abstract symbol of 'the future'. How exactly 'the future' was related to youth as a symbolic category depended largely on participants' perspectives on the proposed Coal Seam Gas (CSG) mining project. For those who supported the CSG project, the figure of youth signified hope of economic invigoration. For those who opposed the CSG project, the loss of landscape for future generations of youth was a key concern due the potential irreversible environmental impacts associated with the extractive industry in the area. We argue 'youth' becomes a 'figure' imbued with the region's affective anxieties surrounding land‐use change. The concept of affect is developed to aid understanding of the collective and embodied dynamics at play in the differing perspectives on CSG extraction and its impact for the future of Narrabri.