Caring for the Australian countryside

Rural policy, people and place: sustainability in an uncertain future

Tuesday 6 November 2012, 6 pm

Professor Margaret Alston OAM
Director of Gender, Leadership and Social Sustainability research unit
Monash University

Margaret Alston was Director of the Centre for Rural Social Research at Charles Sturt University, prior to commencing at Monash University in 2008. She is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney and at Charles Sturt University. She has served on a number of boards and has been an advisor to the socio-economic working group for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Health Workforce Australia working group on teaching. In 2008 she was appointed to the Australian delegation attending the commission for the status of women meeting in New York. She also spent time as a visiting expert at the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation in Rome. She has published widely in the field of rural gender and rural social issues and has acted as a gender expert for UN–Habitat in Kenya in 2009. She has been a keynote speaker at a number of national and international conferences over the last several years and is sought out for media commentary on the rural social condition, and on climate change and gender issues. She received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2010 for services to social work and the advancement of women, particularly in rural areas. She is currently researching the gendered impacts of climate change in Australia, the Pacific, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

Rural policy, people and place: sustainability in an uncertain future

This lecture will focus on rural people and places. It will note the changes and uncertainties relating to climate, policy, population movements and socio-economic factors on Australia’s rural heartland. Professor Alston will examine issues and policies that are shaping rural spaces including those relating to water, production, climate change, environment, telecommunications, health and education. Underlying these factors is an unstated assumption based on technological and economic ‘certainties’ that rural people will adapt and that rural places will reshape in efficient, down-scaled ways. She will examine these assumptions and their impact on rural people and places, arguing for greater attention to the social aspects of rural life. She will suggest the goal of rural policy should be vibrant, well-serviced and supported people and places.

When:	Tuesday 6 November 2012 Refreshments from 5:30 pm (gold coin donation) Lecture and live streaming from 6pm
Where:	Shine Dome, Gordon Street, Canberra View map
Cost:	Free entry and parking
Contact:	RSVPs essential via http://www.eventbrite.com.au/event/4460936782 Further information from Mitchell Piercey Email: mitchell.piercey@science.org.au Phone: 02 6201 9462 Fax: 02 6201 9494