Source: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/ilws/research/strategic-research-area-archives/ejgsc
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 15:18:21+00:00

Document:
The aim of this SRA was to advance policy, community and scholarly understandings about the social dimensions of environmental sustainability.
The emphasis of its research was on issues around transport and energy, climate change, biodiversity and conservation, rural/urban nexus, water security, housing, work and social issues, community sustainability, education, health services, and security issues.
Action is needed to address the numerous and growing threats to the environment on which all life depends. However there are many social barriers, including political, economic, cultural and institutional obstacles, to such action being taken. Questions of environmental justice and governance are central axes of debate on how to best overcome these barriers.
The environmental justice and governance fields are considered embryonic in Australia, with research currently quite patchy, although well-developed internationally. This SRA is helping to address that imbalance.
A number of small projects looking at transport decisions, knowledge of environmental sustainability and biodiversity, and connectedness to Nature have been completed.
An ARC Discovery project on the use of market instruments for improved land management has also been completed with findings provided to policy makers with valuable information on the implementation and adoption of market-based incentives.
Another major ARC Discovery project is underway which aims to analyse and develop core virtues of social workers to strengthen the social fabric of individuals, families and communities.
The Reviving Regional Railways project, which began in 2007, has promoted a better informed debate and a broader range of options on this issue that might not have been apparent otherwise. The NSW Government is now in consultation with local councils seeking to revive the Blayney-Demondrille (Cowra) line south from Blayney.
Currently there are three post-graduate students associated with this SRA.
Aligned with this SRA is the Regional Centre of Expertise Murray-Darling (RCE-MD), acknowledged by the United Nations University. The RCE-MD is a consortium of regional stakeholders within the Murray-Darling Basin that supports and promotes sustainable development through integrated research. CSU is one of the partners in the consortium, which is anchored within ILWS. In collaboration with the SRA, the RCE-MD has obtained government funding for projects which aim to help communities protect their local environment and live more sustainably.
It is widely acknowledged that action is needed to address the numerous and growing threats to the environment and hence the natural resource base on which all life, including human society, depends. Despite this recognition, many social barriers exist to such action being taken including political, economic, cultural and institutional obstacles. These barriers influence action on environmental sustainability at all levels of society from the individual to neighbourhoods, nations and global communities. Questions of environmental justice and governance are central axes of debate and contention about how best to overcome these barriers. This SRA specifically engages with these debates on how best to build ecologically sustainable societies in ways that are socially just.
The "Our Place-Riverina and Murray" project has delivered practical new resources to assist communities in protecting their natural environment and live more sustainably. It has provided new knowledge about how residents are approaching these issues at the local level as well as identified barriers to community engagement and opportunities for new initiatives. The project has also informed NSW OEH community engagement strategies.
A study on understanding a peri-urban community's knowledge and values of biodiversity has improved our understanding of residents' connection to nature and conservation knowledge, attitudes and behaviours. The data collected provides valuable baseline data that will allow researchers to monitor community views before and after projects or education initiatives are conducted. The results are being used by the Albury Conservation Company to develop educational and community biodiversity initiatives and programs.
The on-going "Reviving Regional Railways" project, which began in 2008,is promoting a better informed debate and a broader range of options on this issue than might have been apparent otherwise. Already, with the councils trying to revive the line south from Blayney, the issue is gaining a higher public profile. In October 2014, the NSW State government assessed two tenders to restore the line and start train operations and the NSW Government is now in consultation with local councils.
A competency tool for organisational leadership in sustainability learning, research and strategic management, Ragusa, A. & Crampton, A. (2015-2017) CSU Green Sustainability Large Grant, $50,000.
Building Capacity to respond to climate change at a local level, Howard, J. & Michelle Olivier (PhD student) (2012-2015). DECC. $15,000.
Crowther, A.J. & Ragusa, A.T.(2015) A dose of our own therapy: using research findings to challenge mental health nurses to embrace contemporary practice realities, Issues in Mental Health Nursing, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Crampton, A.L. & Ragusa, A.T. (2014). Perceived agricultural runoff impact on drinking water. Journal of Water and Health.
Higgins, V., Dibden, J., Potter, C., Moon, K. and Cocklin, C. (2014) Payments for ecosystem services, neoliberalisation, and the hybrid governance of land management in Australia. Journal of Rural Studies, 36: 463-474.
Higgins, V., Potter, C., Dibden, J. and Cocklin, C. (2014) Neoliberalising rural environments. Journal of Rural Studies, 36: 386-390.
Higgins, V. (2014) Australia's developmental trajectory: Neoliberal or not? Dialogues in Human Geography. 4(2): 161-164.
Laird, S.G., McFarland-Piazza, L. & Allen, S. (2014). Young children's opportunities for unstructured environmental exploration of nature: Links to adults' experiences in childhood. International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education, 2(1), 58-75.
Pawar, M. (2014). Social Work Practice With Local Communities in Developing Countries. Sage Open, 4(2), 2158244014538640.
Bousfield, K. & Ragusa, A.T. (2014). A sociological analysis of Australia's NAPLAN and My School Senate Inquiry submissions: The adultification of childhood? Critical Studies in Education, 1-16.
Ragusa, A.T. & Crowther, A. (2014). Mental health nurses: The challenge of working in rural and remote Australian communities.In Ragusa, A.T. (Ed.). Rural lifestyles, community well-being and social change: Lessons from country Australia for global citizens. Bentham Science.
Johnston, S. & Ragusa, A.T. (2014). The impact of rurality on major depression in Australia: Socio-cultural reflections for social change. In Ragusa, A.T. (Ed.). Rural lifestyles, community well-being and social change: Lessons from country Australia for global citizens. Bentham Science.
Masterman-Smith, H. (2013). Rural Workers and Environmentally Sustainable Livelihoods in Australia. Rural Society, 22(3), 196-207.
Villar, O. and Cottle, D. (2013) One-Hundred Years of Solitude or Solidarity? Colombia's Forgotten Revolution. A Contracorriente: Journal on Social History and Literature in Latin America. Vol. 10, No. 2 (North Carolina) 167-202.
Higgins, V., Dibden, J. & Cocklin, C. (2012). Market instruments and the neoliberalisation of land management in rural Australia, Geoforum, 43: 377-386.
Maye, D., Dibden, J., Higgins, V. & Potter, C. (2012). Governing biosecurity in a neoliberal world: Comparative perspectives from Australia and the United Kingdom. Environment and Planning A, 44: 150-168.
Mitchell, M., Curtis, A., & Davidson, P. (2012). Can triple bottom line reporting become a cycle for "double loop" learning and radical change? Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 25(6).
Ragusa, A.T. & Crowther, A. (2012). "I think it is the best job…I love it!" Engendering workplace satisfaction in rural and remote Australian mental health nursing.Rural Society, 22(1).
Dibden, J., Higgins, V. & Cocklin, C. (2011). Harmonising the governance of farming risks: The regulation and contestation of agricultural biosecurity and biotechnology in Australia. Australian Geographer, 42(2): 105-122.
Higgins, V. & Dibden, J. (2011). Biosecurity, trade liberalisation and the (anti)politics of risk analysis: The Australia-New Zealand apples dispute', Environment and Planning A, 43: 393-409.
Crichton, M. & Strong, C. (2011). Editorial: Energy and Rurality, Rural Society, 20(3).
Crowther, A. & Ragusa, A.T. (2011). Realities of mental health nursing practice in rural and remote Australia, Issues. Mental Health Nursing, 32(8): 512-518.
Andree, P., Dibden, J., Higgins, V. & Cocklin, C. (2010). Competitive productivism and Australia's emerging 'alternative' agri-food networks: Producing for farmers' markets in Victoria and beyond. Australian Geographer, 41(3): 307-322.
Crampton, A. & Ragusa, A. (2010). The E. Coli load in self-managed rural water in Australia. The Internet Journal of Microbiology. 9(1).
Howard, J.L.,(2010). Managing for justice in community-based water planning: a conceptual model. Environmental Conservation, 37(3), 356-363.
Masterman-Smith, H. (2010) Green collaring a capital crisis? Labour and Industry, 20(3), April, 317-330.
Masterman-Smith, H. (2010) Labour force participation, social inclusion and the Fair Work Act: current and carbon-constrained contexts, Australian Journal of Social Issues, 45(2), 227-241.
Crampton A. & Ragusa A. T. (2009). My water's fine, isn't it? An exploration of the gendered perception of water quality and security in Australia. Rural Society, 18(3), 202-213.
Gray, I. (2009). Maintaining the power of central governments: Regional land transport in the Australian Federation, 1850-2007. The Journal of Transport History, 30: 22-39.
Farmar-Bowers, Q., Higgins, V. & Millar, J. (eds) (2012) Food Security in Australia: Challenges and Future Prospects, New York: Springer.
Pawar, M. (2017). Social Development: Progress So Far. In Midgley, J. & Pawar, M., Future Directions in Social Development (ed). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. (pp. 21-40).
Pawar, M. (2017). The Need for Enhanced Community Participation. In Midgley, J. & Pawar, M., Future Directions in Social Development (ed). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. (pp. 61-77).
Pawar, M. & Midgley, J. (2017). Beyond Goals and Targets: Future of Social Development. In Midgley, J. & Pawar, M., Future Directions in Social Development (ed). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. (pp. 253-264).
Midgley, J. & Pawar, M. (2017). Social Development Forging Ahead. In Midgley, J. & Pawar, M., Future Directions in Social Development (ed). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. (pp. 3-19).
Crampton, A.L. (2014). Water, An essential resource and potential health risk! Rural perceptions, awareness and knowledge of health risks. In Ragusa, A.T. (Ed.). Rural lifestyles, community well-being and social change: Lessons from country Australia for global citizens. Bentham Science.
Masterman-Smith, H. (2013). Worker citizens and the environment. In Heather Aslin & Stewart Lockie (eds), Engaged Environmental Citizenship, CDU/ANU Press, Canberra.
Rafferty, J. (2012). Design of outdoor and environmentally integrated learning spaces. In M. Keppel, K. Souter & M. Riddle (eds), Physical and virtual learning spaces in higher education: Concepts for the modern learning environment, Hershey, PA : IGI Global.
Lawrence, G., Richards, C., Gray, I. (2012). Climate change and the resilience of commodity food production in Australia. In N. Hansar (ed), Food System Failure: The Global Food Crisis and the Future of Agriculture, Earthscan, New York.
Ragusa, A.T. (2011). Changing Towns, Changing Culture: Examining Tree Changers' perceptions of Community in Australian Country Towns and Places. (Chapter 5, pp. 81-104) In Martin, J. & Budge, T. (Eds). The sustainability of Australia's Country Towns. Bendigo, VIC: La Trobe University Press, ISBN: 9781921915116.
Higgins, V., Dibden, J. & Cocklin, C. (2010). Adapting standards: The Case of Environmental Management Systems in Australia. In V. Higgins & W. Larner (eds), Calculating the Social: Standards and the Reconfiguration of Governing. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ragusa, A.T. (2010). Seeking Trees or Escaping Traffic? Socio-Cultural Factors and 'Tree-Change' Migration in Australia. In G.W. Luck, R. Black & D. Race (eds), Demographic Change in Australia's Rural Landscapes. Springer, Netherlands.
Ragusa, A.T. (2010). Country landscapes, private dreams? Tree change and the dissolution of rural Australia. In Whitford, T. & Blacklow, N. (Ed.). Where the crows fly backward: notions of rural identity (Chapter 10, pp. 137-50). QLD: Post Pressed. ISBN: 978-1-921214-61-5.
Gray, I., Lawrence, G. & Sinclair, P. (2009). The sociology of climate change for regional Australia: Considering farmer capacity for change. In J. Martin, M. Rogers & C. Winter (eds), Climate change in regional Australia: Social learning and adaptation, VURRN Press.
Ragusa, A.T. & Crampton, A. (2016) Risky food and water? Health and environmental knowledge and information-seeking in Australia, TASA Conference Proceedings, University of Melbourne, Nov 28 to Dec 1.
Higgins, V., Dunn, T. and Love, C. (2015) Material agency and the adoption of conservation farming practices, Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Agri-Food Research Network, Queenstown, December 6-9.
Higgins, V., Love, C., Dunn, T. and Lemerle, D. (2015) Why do farmers partially adopt conservation farming practices: A sociological study of stubble retention in NSW and Victoria, Proceedings of the 17th Australian Agronomy Conference, 20-24 September 2015, Hobart. Available online at http://www.agronomy2015.com.au.
Higgins, V. and Enticott, G. (2015) Maps, mapping, and neoliberal governance of animal disease, XXVI European Society for Rural Sociology Congress, Aberdeen, August 18-21.
Masterman-Smith, H., Rafferty, J., Sheahan, M. & Ward, W. (2015). Beyond the usual suspects: justice, community and NRM. Presented at Australian Social Science Academy workshop on justice, fairness and equity in natural resource management (12-13 October). Canberra: Australian National University.
Ragusa, A.T. & Crampton, A. (2015, July). Problematising sustainability as a concept for improving the human-animal interface. Australian Animal Studies Group Conference, Melbourne, VIC.
Sheahan, M., Masterman-Smith, H., Rafferty, J. & Ward, W. (2015). Relating environmental justice education to NRM. Presented at Australian Social Science Academy Workshop on justice, fairness and equity in natural resource management (12-13 October). Canberra: Australian National University.
Howard, J.L. (2012). Extremes in justice: how arguments are framed by conservation and farmer groups when attempting to influence water policy. Proceedings for the 6th Australian Stream Management conference.
Drs Helen Masterman-Smith, John Rafferty, Marie Sheahan and PhD candidate, Wes Ward, participated in an Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia workshop on the topic of Justice, Fairness and Equity in Natural Resource Management. The workshop was hosted by the Fenner School at the ANU on 12-13 October, 2015. They gave two presentations: "Beyond the usual suspects: community, justice and NRM" (results from the first Our Place project) and "Relating environmental justice education to NRM" (results from Learning Communities project). The workshop builds the capacity of the SRA through involvement in the establishment of the Australian Environmental Justice Research Network of which Drs John Rafferty and Helen Masterman-Smith are founding members.
Within CSU, Dr Angela Ragusa led and completed creating Sustainability Graduate Learning Outcomes (GLOs) to embed sustainability within the undergraduate curriculum and university courses. Termed 'Sustainability Practices', this GLO received DVA-A and PVC, L&T endorsement in October 2015 and will enter the resource development and implementation stage in 2016. Dr Ragusa is a member of the CSU Sustainability Advisory Group; chair of CSU's Sustainability Practices GLO Reference Group; and member of the CSU GLO Steering Committee.
A/Prof Jonathon Howard was called as an expert witness for the Commonwealth Senate Inquiry into the Social and Economic Impact of the Murray Darling Basin Plan with the final report to be made to the Senate on or before 26 February 2016.
Institute Adjunct Associate Professor Ian Gray has continued to push for the revival of regional rail. To that end, he has helped instigate three successful seminars on the subject in regional NSW. The first, held in Wagga in 2007 in conjunction with Engineers Australia, was attended by about 120 people. Speakers included a former MP, Paul Neville who was Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport and Regional Services at the time.
Senior Policy Officer with the Department of Transport Victoria.
In October 2015, A/Prof Gray gave a presentation on "Rail freight for regional development" at the SEGRA conference held at CSU's Bathurst campus.
In November 2015, he spent four days studying the small, locally managed and provincially administered railways of Saskatchewan, Canada. The tour was organised with help from provincial officials and the Saskatchewan Short Line Railway Association. The aim of the tour was to examine the essential features of small regional freight railways which make them successful and work out how those principles might be applied in Australia, in coordination with the large railway corporations and the three levels of government. The findings have helped specify objectives and methods for two small research projects to be undertaken this year.
and research institutes) explored education for sustainable development. The RCE-MD is developing a professional network of Environmental and NRM educators across the Basin.
The RCE-MD also supported a Climate Change and the Community Forum held at the Albury Entertainment Centre, August 19, 2014 attended by more than 120 people.
An Interim Board meeting of the Regional Centre of Expertise-Murray-Darling (RCE-MD) was held on March 16 2015 at the Albury-Wodonga campus.
NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, Mr Graeme Enders.
the launch of a book showcasing CSUs strength in rural social research at CSU's Wagga campus on March 7, 2014. The book Rural lifestyles, Community Well-being and Social Change: Lessons from Country Australia for Global Citizens, published by Bentham Science, was edited by Dr Angela Ragusa and included chapters by a number of ILWS members on topics such as social and economic change in rural communities,human services delivery in rural and remote communities, and water and knowledge of health risks.
Jenny Woods Experiences of community spirit in flood recovery: Exploring meaning and the opportunities for community development.

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