Rural Resilience and Prosperity : The relevance of government and community networks

ISBN-13: 9783639124422 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 372 str.

Kate Brooks

Opis

Society centred interpretations of social capitalare inadequate to explain the economic fortunes andsocial prosperity of rural Australian communities.This research sought to assess the relationshipbetween different interpretations of social capitaland rural communities resilience and prosperity.The primary objective was to test the associationasserted between levels of social capital andprosperity and resilience in the rural Australiancontext. The research highlights three notable issues.Surveying social capital with society-centredapproaches is only effective in establishing the wellbeing of communities which relates to theirresilience, not an ability to prosper. Secondly, theresponsibilities for social capital generationadopted by governments dictates the manner and degreeto which they acknowledge and utilise bridging andlinking networks, affecting the role social capitalis perceived to play in communities. Lastly, while social capital is regarded as a normative socialfactor, rather than being comprised of different anddynamic elements affecting communities ability toprosper, the concept will remain unable toeffectively contribute to the policy domain.

O autorze

A consulting Social Scientist with extensive experience in rural
community capacity building, Kate currently manages the social
science research program for the Australian Fisheries Research
and Development Corporation, while also consulting in a numnber
of other resource industries and a member of a several academic
research panels.