Are Labour Markets Necessarily Local? Spatiality, Segmentation and Scale

This paper draws on recent debates about scale to approach the geography of labour markets from a dynamic perspective sensitive to the spatiality and scale of labour market restructuring. Its exploration of labour market reconfigurations after the collapse of a major firm (Ansett Airlines) raises questions about geography’s faith in the inherently ‘local’ constitution of labour markets. Through an examination of the job reallocation process after redundancy, the paper suggests that multiple labour markets use and articulate scale in different ways. It argues that labour market rescaling processes are enacted at the critical moment of recruitment, where social networks, personal aspirations and employer preferences combine to shape workers’ destinations

Vegetable Soybean: A Crop with Immense Potential to Improve Human Nutrition and Diversify Cropping Systems in Eastern India- A Review

Vegetable soybean was introduced into Jharkhand state in India to provide local communities with an alternative protein source as well as to diversify the cropping system. The paper covers the introduction of the crop, testing of different lines in farmers’ fields, a taste survey, the release of a vegetable soybean cultivar and its popularization, and seed production by the community. The acceptance of the crop by the local community has led to seed production of the cultivar ‘Swarna Vasundhara’ by farmers. A major challenge is to expand beyond household level consumption and local Jharkhand markets to create awareness among other consumers and establish a larger market throughout India for the crop. Infrastructure such as cold storage facilities will be required to support a viable value chain for vegetable soybean. The good progress made in Jharkhand has given greater hope of expanding vegetable soybean production and consumption across India, particularly in the major grain soybean growing states

The Social Infrastructure Needed to Develop Rual Internet use in Southern Queensland

When an influential farmer who sells computers to his neighbours publicly describes the internet as 'the biggest pain' for farmers and rural computer retailers, then it indicates that all is not well with the local rural internet service. The expanding use of the internet is exposing weaknesses in the rural telephone system, limitations in rural computer support services and a need for a wide range of training. This paper identifies the access and support problems experienced by a selection of early internet adopters in rural southern Queensland. Surveys and discussions were conducted with over 200 people who attended internet training events at Dalby and Applethorpe in southern Queensland in 1997. They perceived internet access to be costly and an often difficult and complex process. Existing ISPs and local computer support services had limited capabilities to cope with the complexity of factors needed to get local internet access to work consistently for different customers. Despite the promises of the internet, accessing it can be a major frustration for farmers and their computer suppliers. Better training and support services will be needed to expand rural internet use. The economic viability of rural internet services may be questionable unless the complex of social and technical constraints that early internet users are facing is not resolved

An ecology of a DSS: Reflections on managing wheat crops in the northeastern Australian grains region with WHEATMAN

An ecological framework is used to study the reinforcing and limiting processes on a computerised decision support system (DSS) designed for winter cropping decisions in the northeastern Australian Grains-belt (WHEATMAN). We found that WHEATMAN has had a significant impact on how many advisers structure their thinking and nmch of their advice on winter cropping in the region, but the number of routine users of WHEATMAN remains relatively low. Computer hardware was the most obvious limiting factor to widespread use during the early stages of the 15 year history of the project. However, despite a dramatic increase in the availability of computers on grain farms (from 5 to 75%), a maximum of 250 out of an estimated 4500 grain farmers in the region with computers directly use WHEATMAN. Another common limiting factor for adoption of DSS is a failure to engage with end users; yet from early days the WHEATMAN project had a high degree of extension agronomist and farmer input. We suggest that just as the debate on the adoption of DSS was dominated by discussions of computerisation in the late 1980s, notions of user involvement have dominated current debate. Experiences with WHEATMAN suggest that well designed software and a focused development team approach, good access to hardware and representative end user involvement are necessary requirements to help explain the comparative longevity of the project. On their own these are not sufficient requirements for widespread adoption or impact. We argue that the perception of farmers of the nature of dryland farm management in general, and the specific decisions addressed by WHEATMAN are the primary limitations to the routine use of a computerised DSS for tactical decision making