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This paper reports some of the main lessons learnt from a collaborative project titled Generating jobs in regional Tasmania: a social capital approach investigating how two small rural Tasmanian communities could better match local training needs with training provision. The project was conducted within the context of the wider social, economic and demographic changes affecting the two rural communities and their ongoing efforts to manage such change. The paper provides a profile of the two communities with particular attention to their local education, training and employment infrastructure. Three research questions in terms of improving the contributions of leadership, partnerships and social capital are addressed. Development and utilisation of social capital, particularly in the form of interactional infrastructure (defined as opportunities and structures for interaction in a community) that brought together the range of stakeholders, appeared the key to successfully matching needs with provision.

Contents #Abduction and Retroduction # Action Research # A Case Study # Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) # Attitudes # Biographical Method # CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing) # Case Study # Causation # Central Tendency # Child Research # Comparative Analysis # Computer Simulation of Social Processes # Constructionism, Social # Content Analysis # Contingency Tables # Conversation Analysis # Correlation and Regression # Critical Theory # Cultural Analysis # Data Archives # Deduction # Diaries, Self-Completion # Discourse Analysis # Dispersion and the Normal Distribution # Documentary Sources # Ecological Fallacy # E-Mail as a Research Tool # Empiricism, Abstracted Empiricism # Epistemology # Ethics # Ethnography # Ethnomethodology # Exploratory Data Analysis # Factor Analysis # Feminist Epistemology # Feminist Methodology # Focus Groups # Gender Identity Dysphoria Assessment # Generalization # Geographic Information Systems (GIS) # Grounded Theory # Hawthorne Effect # Hermeneutics # Historical Methods # Hypothesis Testing # Ideal Type # Impact Assessment # Induction # Intellectual Property Rights # Internet # Interpretation # Interviews # Literature Searching # Loglinear Analysis # Longitudinal Research # Measurement, Level of # Meaning # Methodology # `Micro' Sampling Techniques # Modernity # Multilevel Models # Narrative Approach # Naturalism # Observation, Overt and Covert # Online Methods # Paradigm # Participant Observation # Participatory Action Research # Phenomenology # Philosophy of Social Research # Policy Research # Positivism # Qualitative Research # Qualitative Research Data, Archiving # Queer Research # Questionnaire and Structured Interview Schedule Design # Questionnaires and Structured Interview Schedules # Realism # Reflexivity # Research Design # Sampling, Probability # Sampling, Quota # Sampling, Snowball # Assessing Hidden and Hard-to-Reach Populations # Secondary Analysis Qualitative # Secondary Data Analysis # Sensitive Research # Sex Surveys # Social Fact # Social Indicators # Social Statistics # Social Survey # Standardisation # Statistical Interaction # Structuralism/Poststructuralism # Systematic Review # Telephone Methods for Social Surveys # Theory # Triangulation # Unobtrusive Measures # Verbal Protocol Analysis # Verstehen # Vignette # Visual Research Methods.

This book enables readers to compare three approaches to research - qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods - in a single research methods text. The book examines these methodologies side by side within the process of research, from the beginning steps of philosophical assumptions to the writing and presenting of research. Written in a user-friendly manner, this text showcases ideas in a system of scaffolds so that the reader understands concepts from the simple to the complex." "This text is appropriate for students taking research design and research methods classes throughout the social and behavioral sciences - from undergraduates to students in the most advanced doctoral programs. Contents Pt. I. Preliminary Considerations 1. The Selection of a Research Design 2. Review of the Literature 3. The Use of Theory 4. Writing Strategies and Ethical Considerations Pt. II. Designing Research 5. The Introduction 6. The Purpose Statement 7. Research Questions and Hypotheses 8. Quantitative Methods 9. Qualitative Procedures 10. Mixed Methods Procedures.

Pt. I. The Basics Ch. 1. The Purpose of Tourism Planning Ch. 2. Tourism as a System Ch. 3. Growth, Sustainability, Ecotourism Ch. 4. Policy Pt. II. Concepts and Examples of Tourism Planning Ch. 5. Regional Planning Concepts Ch. 6. Regional Planning Cases Ch. 7. Destination Planning Concepts Ch. 8. Destination Planning Cases Ch. 9. Site Planning Concepts Ch. 10. Site Planning Cases.

Research reported here identified planning and management issues relating to integrated development of nature-based tourism in the Central Coast Region of Western Australia. Stakeholder views were gauged through a workshop involving 45 people and a series of interviews. The workshop was also designed to stimulate interest in the establishment of a regionally, integrated tourism group to address any issues identified. Participants included members of the tourism industry, the community, and representatives of government and non-government organisations. Seven individuals participated in interviews, including the chief executive officers of the local authorities and regional development commissions. The results indicate that the regional tourism industry is fragmented and uncoordinated, which is hindering regional development. Implementation of regional tourism planning is virtually non-existent in the Central Coast, due to the lack of a regional tourism policy. Management of tourism resources is restricted by limited coordination between industry and government, and especially by inadequate resource provision to local authorities and land management agencies. An outcome of the workshop was the formation of a regionally integrated tourism group, the Turquoise Coast Sustainable Development Steering Committee, to implement recommendations arising from the workshop. However, the group has met with limited successes to date, owing to a range of political and sectoral issues beyond the scope of tourism planning. The research highlights difficulties in implementing collaborative tourism planning initiatives at the regional scale.

Part. 1. Foundations of social research 1. Introduction 2. Varieties of social research 3. Feminist research 4.Principles of social research Part 2. Research planning 5. Research design 6. Initiating social research 7. Sampling procedures Part 3. Methods of data collection 8. Multiple-sample research 9. Field research 10. Observation 11. Questionnaires 12. Interviews 13. The study of documents 14. Applied resarch Part 4. Data analysis 15. Qualitative analysis 16. Quantitative Analysis Part 5.Publication 17. Reporting.

Managing risk? Social policy responses in time of drought

This paper seeks to ascertain the usefulness of the theory of social capital as a framework for developing and sustaining the inclusion of people with disabilities and families in community life. We discuss the theoretical elements of social capital and assess its relevance when understanding both the experiences of people with disabilities and their families and the possible implications for policy and programme efforts to promote inclusion. Preliminary findings from two studies of the experiences and social networks of people with disabilities and their families in communities in regional and rural Australia are presented. It is argued that to date, people with disabilities and their families have largely been excluded from the broader social capital debate and that social capital thinking has had minimal influence on efforts to achieve the inclusion of people with disabilities into community life. It is further argued that new paradigms of support are needed that build capacity and social capital through working alongside individuals and families to influence not only outcomes for them, but also for the communities on which they live. The local area coordination model as it has developed in Australia since 1989 provides some instructive signposts for integrating individual, family and community approaches. It is concluded that social capital theory can make a contribution to inclusion theory and practice but we should use it with circumspection.

In recent years the Australian government has dedicated considerable project funds to establish public Internet access points in rural and regional communities. Drawing on data from a major Australian study of the social and economic impact of new technologies on rural areas, this paper explores some of the difficulties rural communities have faced in setting up public access points and sustaining them beyond their project funding. Of particular concern is the way that economic sustainability has been positioned as a measure of the success of such ventures. Government funding has been allocated on the basis of these rural public access points becoming economically self-sustaining. This is problematic on a number of counts. It is therefore argued that these public access points should be reconceptualised as essential community infrastructure like schools and libraries, rather than potential economic enterprises.

This paper examines some effects of the pursuit of neoliberalism on regional development policy and practice in Australia, and in particular on the activities and effectiveness of regional development organisations. The paper interprets data from a survey of 505 regional development organisations across Australia through the framework of Jessop's contribution to state theory and his identification of four key trends in economic management under neoliberalism. Regional development policies are seen as a response of governments to electoral pressure from regions, but a response that is constrained by the dominance of neoliberal ideology. The objectives of regional development are predominantly economic, but are often limited to the role of facilitation and the provision of information. Some responsibility for regional development has been shifted downwards to regions, but the effectiveness of the organisations given this responsibility is reduced by the short-term and competitive nature of much of their funding, the lack of coordination between regional development actors at the local level, the proliferation of agencies and the competition between them. The paper concludes that regional development agencies in Australia are in many ways a product of neoliberalism, since they represent one way in which governments can be seen to be responding to regional pressure for assistance but they can do so without incurring significant costs. Yet regional development bodies are also a victim of neoliberalist thinking, since it denies them the resources and the powers they need to be more successful in their work.

This paper will assess the way in which a qualitative data analysis software package—NVivo—can be used in the data analysis process. Computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) has been seen as aiding the researcher in her or his search for an accurate and transparent picture of the data whilst also providing an audit of the data analysis process as a whole—something which has often been missing in accounts of qualitative research. This paper will compare manual techniques in the qualitative data analysis of interview transcripts with the use of NVivo. In particular, this paper will consider the difficulties surrounding interrogation of interview transcripts and will assess issues of reliability and validity in the data analysis process. The time investment required in order to make full use of NVivo's tools will also be discussed. It is shown that a combination of both manual and computer assisted methods is likely to achieve the best results.

This book provides a cross-disciplinary perspective on participation and governance issues in regional development - processes now regarded as essential for sustainable regional development. It brings together a group of respected social researchers from across Australia to consider these issues and places Australian regional development experiences within their broader international context. Contents: Approaching regional development Regional governance and regionalism in Australia / A.J. Brown The insider's perspective on regional development: using the anthropological perspective / Robyn Eversole Creating economic opportunities Participation and governance in regional economic development / Robyn Eversole and John Martin Governance and the performance of regional development agencies in Australia / Andrew Beer and Alaric Maude Looking for a c-change: factors contributing to regional development / Patrice Braun Facilitating regional development through 'interactional infrastructure': skill development in seasonal industries / Sue Kilpatrick and Helen Bound Managing national resources participation and the governance of natural resources / Robyn Eversole and John Martin Regional delivery of natural resource management in Australia: is it democratic and does it matter? / Susan A. Moore Participation or co-governance? Challenges for regional natural resource management / Brian Head Questioning the potential of deliberativeness to achieve 'acceptable' natural resource management decisions / Andrew Craig and Frank Vanclay Acknowledging diversity and exclusion Twin challenges - diversity and exclusion / Robyn Eversole and John Martin Reframing issues in rural development: women's insights into sustainability and their implications for government / Helen Ross and Fiona McCartney Negotiating definitions of indigenous participation in community development / Sherry Saggers The hidden role of gender exclusion in regional development agencies / Julie Grant and Al Rainnie Drought and social exclusion / Margaret Alston Linking local issues and larger contexts From local issues to responsive policy - bridging the gap / Robyn Eversole and John Martin Informing regional policy: using a regional atlas to develop shared understandings / Fiona McKenzie Developing population strategies for Australia's 'heartland' regions / Gordon Forth and Kenneth Howell Local government and governance in Victoria: challenges for community participation / Kevin O'Toole.a Johnson.

In the early 1970s, groups of Aboriginal people in remote Arnhem Land, north Australia, moved from centralised townships back to small communities called ‘outstations’ on their traditional lands. This ‘outstations movement’ reinvigorated the customary sector of the economy, which is based on wildlife harvesting. Using a sustainability framework and data collected on wildlife harvesting by Kuninjku people during fieldwork in 1979–80 and again in 2002–03, this paper examines three broad questions. First, when, how and why were these outstations established and what was the policy response to this re-occupation? Second, are outstations economically, socially and ecologically sustainable? Third, turning to the future, how sustainable and replicable might the Arnhem Land case examined here prove to be? Challenging recent doubts in public debates about the value of land rights and native title, I demonstrate that Indigenous people living ‘on country’ generate economic, social and ecological benefits at local, regional and national levels. The paper concludes that an emerging match between continuing Indigenous aspirations to manage their country and public policy concerns about Indigenous well-being, on the one hand, and healthy landscapes, on the other, should ensure sustainable Indigenous futures on country in north Australia—with appropriate institutional support and adequate resources.

Australia's large regional cities and towns display a wide variation in their adjustment to the socio-economic transitions that have occurred over the past decade. In terms of socio-economic advantage and disadvantage, these changes, often associated with globalisation, wider economic and technological restructuring, the changing demographics of the population and shifts in public policy, are not evenly dispersed across non-metropolitan regions. Such outcomes have been discussed across a variety of academic disciplines using a variety of data and methods, and the research undertaken has provided a useful grounding for contemporary studies both theoretically and methodologically. Analysis of new data provides an opportunity to extend and update our understanding. This paper presents an analysis of secondary data aimed at analysing non-metropolitan cities, towns and regions based on differential levels of socio-economic performance. Using an alternative clustering method, this paper groups non-metropolitan cities, towns and regions according to the degree to which they share similar socio-economic and demographic outcomes. These clusters form the basis of a typology representing the range of socio-economic and demographic outcomes at the non-metropolitan level.

This document is a sample. It is an example that has been developed to demonstrate a concept – the type of product that could emerge from a body of research, were it to be supported for a given timeframe. The date on the front cover is no mistake – the report is a sketch of what a document might look like in 2006 – following two years of funding that followed from a pilot study that finished in 2004. The topic this research is tackling is both complex and challenging – no less than identifying, describing and linking the core social issues affecting sustainability of Outback communities. Understanding, leave alone solving, this suite of complex issues, and their interactions is beyond current social research. To the authors’ knowledge, no existing document has come close to this goal. The order is tall and the research team and the funding agencies supporting the work couldn’t even imagine what such a project – and its outputs – would involve. Precedents that review social and economic dimensions across Australia are few and characterised by statements such as ‘no data available’. This is partly because research and associated funding for social dimensions of environment and sustainability in general are only recently emerging as priorities in a natural resource management context. The Australian Outback represents a context where the connections between social, environmental and economic dimensions are inherently meaningful to those who live there. These connections are fundamental to people’s livelihoods – links between farm and family, people and country. This sample discussion paper represents an indicative map in poorly charted territory, but where people are confident that the issues are inherently important. It is not a work entirely of fiction, nor does it take an unprecedented format. Rather it is more like an extrapolation based on the issues encountered in the pilot study, and the format is adapted from a tangible and widely recognised piece of innovative work – the discussion document that emerged from a series of workshops on defining and managing healthy savannas (Whitehead et al. 2000). This precedent was focussed on the ecology of the savannas, but emphasised the need for further work in the social and economic fields. Such a document does not yet exist, but it may, should the current pilot study lead onto a further stage. Considering the pages before you we ask you not to judge the current document on the breadth of the data, nor on the accuracy of the analysis, for it would certainly disappoint, as it is not even possible to write such a document without first conducting the research. By contrast, judge the document on its ability to illustrate a complex and difficult idea based on a short period of pilot research, for which it has some hope of achieving its purpose. 1 Introduction 1.1 The importance of partnerships in Outback areas 1.2 A focus on health and livelihoods 1.3 Aims of this research 2 Conceptualising health and viability in Outback regions 2.1 What is different about the Outback? 2.2 Why consider issues of Outback viability? 2.2.1 Under representation 2.2.2 Accommodating different perspectives 2.2.3 A process to compare knowledge and views 2.2.4 An Outback partnership 3 Methodology 3.1 Different ways of valuing Outback regions 3.2 Different ways of knowing and understanding Outback issues 3.3 Research design 3.4 Stage 1. Review of existing regionalisation frameworks 3.5 Stage 2. Developing a working understanding of socio-economic regionalisation of Outback Australia 3.6 Stage 3. Refining the regionalisation framework and enhancing understanding of its application 3.7 Stage 4: Breadth of coverage through rapid appraisal 3.8 Stage 5: Depth of coverage through case studies 3.9 Feedback on results of research 3.9.1 Closing the theoretical loop 3.9.2 Feedback to the policy stakeholders 3.9.3 Feedback to case study regions 4 Outcomes from research on categorising communities 4.1 Geographical communities 4.2 Communities of interest and activity 4.2.1 Communities of interest 4.2.2 Communities of practice 4.3 Case studies 4.3.1 Adapting to change in the Upper Burdekin 4.3.2 Mining-based communities 5 Issues and indicators 5.1 Attributes of healthy and viable Outback regions 5.1.1 Spectrum of employment opportunities 5.2 Sample workshop output tables 6 Conclusions and implications for policy 6.1 Complex issues are not solved though reactive solutions 6.2 Addressing the lack of information 6.3 Practical insights for continued discussion 7 References 8 Appendix 1 workshop details

The Regional Dynamics Scoping Study reported here was carried out for the Tropical Savannas CRC in 2002–03. The project encompassed a substantial literature survey, a workshop of experts with knowledge of the north, several different exploratory model developments, and a collation of basic profiling data for savannas. Here we distil some of the lessons from all of these activities, recognising that their logic emerges from the details to be found by reading the whole report. We then propose elements of a potential research program for the TS–CRC’s consideration.

This paper brings to the surface a number of issues about the experience of being a board member of a RDA in NSW and WA. It seems that board members are drawn to this involvement as an act of goodwill and in the effort to make positive contributions to their communities. Involvement is often a reflection of their own personal and work based identities. For some board members the boardroom experience enables them to make connections which are often of a political nature. The majority of board members report that the experience of being on the board of a RDA has benefited their understanding of the region and the existence of funding programs, and how the 'system' works.

The overall aim of the report is to provide an assessment of regional employment dynamics and future labour demand in the Great Southern, South West, and Wheatbelt regions. More specifically, the report: •Examines the demographic and economic dynamics driving regional labour markets; •Analyses the changing structure of regional labour markets in terms of sector and occupation; •Identifies the major challenges facing employers in the regions; •Develops projections of labour for demand to 2015 for sectors and occupations within the regions. The data sources used in the preparation of this report included: •Australian Bureau of Statistics census, labour force survey, and business data; •Department of Employment and Workplace Relations Small Area Labour Market Data; •Australian Taxation Office data; •A questionnaire survey of 280 employers in the four regions; One of the central objectives of the report was to develop labour force scenarios for specific sectors and occupations within the Great Southern, South West and Wheatbelt. Scenarios were developed using a Dynamic Shift-Share ARIMA model. This model produces total employment, sectoral and occupational scenarios for each region. Geographically, each region has been examined according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ statistical subdivisions. While the dynamics of change are different across the three regions, it is clear that there are important labour force issues that need to be addressed, including: •Strategic planning for changing economic and demographic structures within regions, and the associated emerging demands for labour; •Severe skilled and general labour shortages in a number of sectors; •Challenges in attracting employees to, and retaining employees in, regional areas; •Inter and intra regional competition for labour; •A rapid ageing of the workforce in a number of sectors and locations.

The predicted extent of dryland salinity in Western Australia is very great and the threat to public and private assets is undeniably serious. The available evidence suggests that more than four million of 18 million hectares of agricultural and public land may be affected by salinity with significant impacts on biodiversity, water supplies, rural towns and other infrastructure. With these projections it is not surprising that salinity has become an important catalyst for change in Western Australia. The Taskforce considers that much has been achieved since the Government launched the Salinity Action Plan in 1996. A primary achievement has been a much better understanding of the real scale of the problem and in the face of this, recognition that there are currently few economically viable options to manage salinity. The solutions to salinity are not simple. Salinity has also sparked serious debate about future land uses and what is actually achievable in terms of landscape change. Whole new areas of research have become established and there are increasingly urgent calls to recognise the roles of different approaches to salinity management. The Salinity Taskforce considers that salinity can and should be usefully viewed as an opportunity and driver to develop new sustainable industries, landscape systems and management techniques. In part, this means accepting that salinity will be part of our future landscape and must therefore influence our ways of doing business. A key part at the approach recommended by the Taskforce is the creation of opportunities which are jointly positive for the community, the environment, and the economy. Substantial changes in current farming practices and land use will be part of this. In seeking this outcome the Salinity Taskforce recommends that the State should attempt to capitalise on opportunities that integrated responses to salinity management might present. These include opportunities through as yet undeveloped industries, such as in power generation, wood production, food production, mineral production, and carbon sequestration among others, and in the developed industries such as wool and meat production.

Major changes in personal mobility and in country town service provision have taken place in rural South Australia in the period 1968–69 to 1992–93. The later part of this period was one of major rural recession across Australia as a whole. The impact of this recession is considered by investigating changes in three different geographies of rural South Australians. These are their affective identification with place, their local social interaction and their commercial service consumption. There has been a shift of both commercial and social activity up through the hierarchy of settlement, but this is much more pronounced in the case of commercial activity. These differential rates of change are weakening the once mutually reinforcing links between community self-identification, social interaction and trading patterns. The full impact of the rural crisis commencing in 1982–83 on social and commercial spatial patterns is unlikely to have been achieved by 1992–93, and adjustment is likely to continue.

This research examines how board members of regional development agencies in Australia interpret and perform their governance role, and considers what this tells us about the nature of regional development governance. With no previous research into these women and men who accept appointment onto these boards, the board experience has been uncharted and board members invisible in their roles. This research focuses on the boards of state government funded regional development agencies in two states, New South Wales (NSW) and Western Australia (WA). Board members of these agencies are ministerial appointees. Six boards were identified on the basis of geographically dispersed locations, three boards in each state. Fifty-three board members were interviewed (twenty-one women and thirty-two men) from these selected boards in primarily face to face, semi-structured interviews which allowed for issues to be explored during the interview. This research uses grounded theory to analyse the way in which board members describe their boardroom experience and board role to reveal patterns and variations in the way in which regional development governance is practiced.

Globalisation and changes in agriculture have resulted in major social changes in inland Australia. Depopulation of the inland has led many to speculate on the future of rural towns and rural people. This paper will examine population drifts from country towns to cities and from the inland to the coastal regions and, in particular, the out-migration of young people. In doing this, the paper focuses on several small towns in central New South Wales that have been the subject of intensive study during 2000 and 2001. Drawing on analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, in-depth interviews and focus groups with key informants and surveys with young people and their parents in small rural communities the paper will report on the loss of young people and the greater loss of young women from these areas. It is argued that this outmigration of young people is linked to the need to seek higher education and also to the loss of full-time jobs for young people. The loss of these jobs is the result of changes in agricultural production, labour market restructuring and a withdrawal of public and private sector services. It is further argued that current reliance by governments on market based and community self-help solutions is not enough to provide a future for rural communities. Even if economic growth occurs this will not solve the problem of loss of young people, and the greater loss of young women, nor will it address the issue of access to education and training. Rather far greater attention to human capital (access to education, training and employment), institutional capital (government and non-government services and infrastructure) and social capital (strong networks) is needed if Australia's small rural towns are to survive and flourish.

This article focuses on gender mainstreaming in practice using the example of agriculture departments in Australia. Gender mainstreaming is a policy initiative adopted internationally following the Beijing women's conference in 1995 to address gender inequality. The move represents a policy shift from a focus solely addressing women's disadvantage to a broader attention to gender inequality. This article provides an historical overview of the move toward gender mainstreaming in the international environment, as well as a theoretical critique. Using the Australian case example, the shift of attention from rural women to gender mainstreaming in Australian agricultural departments appears to be taking place with little understanding of the concept of gender mainstreaming or its goals. It is further argued that recent moves by government departments of agriculture toward gender mainstreaming may have disadvantaged women. This article argues that, while in theory mainstreaming is a more successful way of addressing gender inequality, in practice it risks reducing attention to women unless changes occur in departmental cultures and gender mainstreaming accountability measures are introduced at international and national levels.

Australian rural women are largely invisible in public areas of influence. This paper presents findings of research into Australian rural women 's public profile in powerful agricultural organisations. Using a survey of Chairs of influential Boards and follow up interviews, as well as a survey of women in influential positions it shows that the Australian agricultural agenda is largely framed around a masculinist position and that women remain shadowy presences of outraged silence. Few men in powerful positions express disquiet about the current situation, with most arguing that appointments are based on merit. This paper exposes the fallacy of such a position noting that merit-based appointment is impossible under current selection processes. Disturbingly women who have gained access to positions of influence report overt and covert harassment from male colleagues. The paper concludes that changes to organisational culture are essential if women are to gain access to positions of influence.

Historically horticultural land has been developed on the fringes of the urban area of Perth. Land for horticulture has been taken up as freehold broadacre agriculture land and in time increasing land values have funded either future land and water supply purchases further from the fringe or retirement for the horticulturists. This pressure from urban expansion is active in the important east Wanneroo horticulture district and groundwater reserves are over allocated. A replacement for land that will be lost to domestic and industrial uses is urgently required. The Western Australian Planning Commission has identified a precinct that can be developed for horticulture at Carabooda. It is already well developed, with about 1,000 ha of the 1,800 ha precinct under freehold and more than 60% cultivated. Expectations for freehold land are necessarily different than development conditions that might be imposed on a green-fields site.