Motivators and barriers to adoption of improved land management practices. A focus on practice change for water quality improvement in Great Barrier Reef catchments

To protect and improve water quality in the Great Barrier Reef, the Queensland Government's Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan targets that 90% of sugarcane, horticulture, cropping and grazing lands in priority areas be managed using best management practices for sediment, nutrient and pesticides by 2025. Progress towards this target is insufficient and variable across catchments and industries. The motivation to adopt improvements in management practices is heavily influenced by social, economic, cultural and institutional dimensions. In this paper we synthesise the literature on how these human dimensions influence decision making for land management practice and highlight where future investment could be focussed. We highlight that focussing on —1) investigating systems to support landholder decision making under climate uncertainty (risk); 2) generating a better understanding of the extent and drivers of landholder transaction cost; 3) understanding if there are competing ‘right’ ways to farm; and 4) improving understanding of the social processes, trust and power dynamics within GBR industries and what these means for practice change— could improve practice change uptake in the future

Understanding power, social capital and trust alongside near real-time water quality monitoring and technological development collaboration

We report on qualitative social research conducted with stakeholders in a local agricultural knowledge and advice network associated with a collaborative water quality monitoring project. These farmers, advisors and researchers allude to existing social dynamics, technological developments, and (more general) social evolution which is analysed against a novel analytical framework. This framework considers notions of power, social capital, and trust as related and dynamic, forming the basis of our contribution to knowledge. We then probe the data to understand perceived impacts of the collaborative project and social interaction associated with this research project, which involved cutting edge automated and frequent water quality monitoring that allowed for near real-time access to data visualisation displayed via a bespoke mobile or web ‘app’ (1622WQ). Our findings indicate that a multi-faceted approach to assessing and intervening based on consideration of multiple social dimensions holds promise in terms of creating conditions that allow for individual and group learning to encourage changes in thinking required to result in improved land management practice

South Australian agriculture: a narrative to encourage future policy reform.

South Australian agriculture has been production and export orientated since soon after European settlement. The associated cultural implications have influenced, and been influenced by, the neoliberal capitalist form that has framed Australian and South Australian governance since the 1980s. An extreme wave of neoliberal productivism has been encouraged that has led to numerous critiques of this pathway, especially in regard to the sustainability of socio-environmental outcomes of agricultural land use. The social and environmental consequences of agricultural land use are rarely explicitly valued or supported by policy in South Australia, however a multifunctional shift is occurring in other wealthy nations, which involves the increased valuation of the multiple functions of agricultural systems. This thesis examines the implications of liberal governance on agricultural stakeholders in South Australia in an effort to understand and address specific criticisms to help plan for a more multifunctional future. South Australian farmers and agricultural governance stakeholders were asked to describe their opinions on current policy and outline their perceptions of what framework was required to facilitate a multifunctional agricultural industry. Four key research questions are addressed concerning: the self-perceived priorities of South Australian farmers; farmer perceptions of agricultural governance institutions; South Australian agricultural governance stakeholders’ perceptions of their roles; and, whether there are other, more appropriate policy mechanisms available to increase the sustainability of South Australian agriculture. The original contribution to knowledge includes a survey of South Australian farmers’ perceptions of current policy settings, with a spatial focus around the rural Riverland town of Loxton and the peri-urban Barossa Valley. Three policy recommendations, which are deduced from primary and secondary data analysis, form the main conclusions. Firstly, farmers themselves, and future policy, must recognise the importance of education to generate resilient agri-businesses, as education level is shown to alter respondents’ priorities, increase the multifunctionality of land use, and reduce dependence upon government assistance. Secondly, to maximise the benefits of any policy implemented it must be flexible, community-focused to encourage cooperation, and avoid regulatory complexity to ensure farmer support. For example, a highly bureaucratic system, such as the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy, that governs agriculture in the United Kingdom, is unlikely to be popular in the South Australian context. Finally, if the first two recommendations are combined into policy settings that encourage public-private partnerships in the agricultural sector, and increase explicit support mechanisms for social and environmental outcomes from farming, there will be beneficial implications for the long-term sustainability of agriculture in South Australia.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 201

Rational fictions: Hollis Frampton's Magellan and the atlas of film

© 2019 Giles Simon FielkeThis thesis analyses three films by Hollis Frampton (1936-1984): Magellan (1964–1984), Palindrome, (1969), and Zorns Lemma (1970). I argue that Frampton sought to organise knowledge on film by recuperating the atlas—a highly selective tableau of images arranged spatially—as a model to promote film as a form of cultural memory in contrast to history. It begins with an examination of these themes in Frampton’s writing, following his conceptualisation of what he called ‘the infinite film’ and ‘the infinite cinema’ in his 1971 essay “For a Metahistory of Film: Commonplace Notes and Hypotheses” and the subsequent essay “Digressions on the Photographic Agony,” from 1972. After an analysis of how his unfinished, 36-hour-long film-cycle titled Magellan developed from this model, I argue that Zorns Lemma (1970) can be re-framed as an experiment in “filmnemonics”. This latter film left Frampton unsatisfied, however, due to the way in which it emphasised photography’s subordination to traditional systems of inscription, both alphabetical and numerical, in the highly determined matrix of the film frame. Finally, I argue that Frampton recognised that his earlier film, Palindrome (1969), was the experiment most appropriate for realising the model of the atlas of film. Frampton’s decision to include Palindrome within the Magellan cycle is proof not only of the importance of that film and its significance for understanding the complexity of the long, calendrical film cycle as a whole, but also of his shift to a topological model of film. Central to the thesis is the idea of conflation as a means to link memory with formal attempts at thinking in images, as demonstrated by Frampton’s work, addressing how he strove to accommodate film in its complexity while also providing a path through its infinity

Reputational Risk Associated with Big Data Research and Development: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

Many private and public actors are incentivized by the promises of big data technologies: digital tools underpinned by capabilities like artificial intelligence and machine learning. While many shared value propositions exist regarding what these technologies afford, public-facing concerns related to individual privacy, algorithm fairness, and the access to insights requires attention if the widespread use and subsequent value of these technologies are to be fully realized. Drawing from perspectives of data science, social science and technology acceptance, we present an interdisciplinary analysis that links these concerns with traditional research and development (R&D) activities. We suggest a reframing of the public R&D ‘brand’ that responds to legitimate concerns related to data collection, development, and the implementation of big data technologies. We offer as a case study Australian agriculture, which is currently undergoing such digitalization, and where concerns have been raised by landholders and the research community. With seemingly limitless possibilities, an updated account of responsible R&D in an increasingly digitalized world may accelerate the ways in which we might realize the benefits of big data and mitigate harmful social and environmental costs

Using a co-innovation approach to support innovation and learning : Cross-cutting observations from different settings and emergent issues

Co-innovation has gained interest in recent years as an approach to tackle issues in agriculture and natural resource management. Co-innovation requires new roles for researchers supporting these processes and enabling settings in the programs they work in and the organizations they pertain to. The contributions to this special issue explore experiences with co-innovation in different settings from different angles. The special issue presents several studies on co-innovation in a large program in New Zealand, a study based on an EU Horizon 2020 project in the Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom as well as co-innovation experiences from Uruguay and Tanzania. Cross-cutting findings and emergent issues include (i) the need to consider the issue of simultaneously scaling both co-innovation project results and the co-innovation practice, (ii) the issue of flexibility in pace of co-innovation to allow different participants to converge and the flexibility in learning space needed to enable reflection, (iii) the issue of changing the dominant logics of the innovation systems in which co-innovation is embedded and (iv) the need for reflexive monitoring to support processes of co-innovation and their institutional embedding.</p

Navigating shades of social capital and trust to leverage opportunities for rural innovation

This paper makes a contribution to understanding the impact of relational trust, as embodied within bonding, bridging and linking social capital, on rural innovation. Using cases of multi-stakeholder groups who work together on shared problems it explores how social capital and different forms of trust (companion, competence and commitment) influence rural innovation processes. Looking at both the ‘bright’ and ‘dark’ side of social capital, our focus is on how social capital and trust constrain and enable the process of innovation. The study highlights both positive and negative effects of social capital in the context of three fixed term projects that were part of New Zealand's Primary Innovation programme (2012–2017). Our findings show that there was a unique composition of social capital and trust at the outset of each project and that dark social capital was a critical constraint in each case. Enabling innovation processes required committed and dedicated brokers who provided bridging social capital and embodied competence trust to enable participants' confidence. Such brokers are capable of recognising and managing different 'shades’ of social capital and trust in pursuing desired project outcomes. A main theoretical implication of this study is that a better understanding of social capital and trust is needed to enable innovation facilitators and project managers to design and undertake fixed term rural innovation projects effectively. This is because social capital determines whether the composition of relationships within networks of actors involved in innovation projects enables innovation, or to the contrary constrains innovation. Specifically the implications and implementation of bridging social capital and competence trust are key determinants of successful innovation processes.</p

Hitting the bullseye : Learning to become a reflexive monitor in New Zealand

Reflexive monitors (RMs) have been found to be vital to the success of co-innovation projects. While the practices utilized by RMs have been examined in various contexts, we examine the roles they have played in a new cultural context in New Zealand (NZ) and how it has been possible to embed these roles in a diverse range of innovation projects in the primary sector. This article will address this gap in terms of explaining the case-specific behaviours that have been utilized in six different co-innovation projects in the NZ agricultural innovation system. Qualitative data from interviews with five RMs will be used to argue that RMs are a key component in the co-innovation process and are required to play diverse roles depending on project circumstances to enhance system innovation – for example, devil’s advocate, project supporter, consensus seeker, conflict mediator, critical enquirer or encourager. The findings have implications for the characteristics that make a good RM in terms of openness to new ideas, facilitation and critical thinking skills and how they report on the practice of monitoring a project reflexively utilizing monitoring and evaluation techniques.</p