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Community-Centred Environmental Discourse: Redefining Water Management in the Murray Darling Basin, Australia

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Abstract

The Australian government's response to the Millennium Drought (1997–2010) has been met with praise and contestation. While proponents saw the response as timely and crucial, critics claimed it was characterized by government overreach and mismanagement. Five months of field research in farm communities in the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) identified two dominant discourses: administrative rationalism and a local community-based discourse I have termed community-centrism. Administrative rationalism reflects the value of scientific inquiry in service to the state and is the dominant research-based problem-solving model used by water and natural resource agencies (Dryzek in The politics of the earth: environmental discourses, Oxford University Press, 2013; Colloff and Pittock in Aust J Water Resour, 23(2):88–98, 2019). Community-centrism was identified through discussions with farmers and represents a bottom-up approach to environmental planning and management that seeks to incorporate local knowledge, planning, and direct participation. This investigation reveals how discourses define problems and policy choices. While market-based government interventions were likely necessary to address the crisis in the MDB, community-centred responses could have enhanced the government’s capacity to respond to problems. This paper argues that the long-term sustainability of water management in the Basin will require a reorientation on the part of farmers, academics, and governments to develop a community-centred approach to water policies impacting agriculture.

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Notes

  1. Around the towns of Narrandera, Leeton, Finley, and Griffith.

  2. Other than companies owned by their own families to organize an inter-generational business.

  3. 1 hectare = 2.471 acres or 10,000 square meters.

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Funding

Partial financial support was received for this research from the Australian Endeavor Scholarship, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and the Carleton University Department of Political Science Graduate Scholarship. Charles Sturt University acted as host institution during the authors time in Australia. The author has no affiliations with or personal involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. The views expressed and interpretations of notes made during interviews are strictly those of the author.

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  1. Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Dr, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada

    Amanda Shankland

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Shankland, A. Community-Centred Environmental Discourse: Redefining Water Management in the Murray Darling Basin, Australia. J Agric Environ Ethics 37, 7 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-024-09926-0

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