Professor Margaret Alston

Bangladesh is by no means a high emitter of carbon, but it is nevertheless one of the countries most critically affected. There is a significant risk of damage to lives and livelihoods due to climate change in the form of cyclones, flooding and storm surges, and slow-onset impacts such as droughts, sea level rises and river basin erosion. Moreover, Bangladeshis are especially vulnerable as a high proportion of people live in extreme poverty. This book assesses the impact of climate change in Bangladesh, and presents the findings of a three-year, in-depth study undertaken at village level in different districts of the country. It examines national policies, contrasting them with what is actually happening at village level. It outlines the impact of climate change on livelihood strategies and health, and focuses particularly on the impact on gender relations, showing that although women have a significant role to play in helping communities cope with the effects of climate change, cultural customs and practices often work against this. The book argues for, and puts forward policy proposals for, recognising women's active contribution and supporting gender equality as a critical strategy in global adaptation to climate challenges.

Research, Action and Policy: Addressing the Gendered Impacts of Climate Change presents the voices of women from every continent, women who face vastly different climate events and challenges. The book heralds a new way of understanding climate change that incorporates gender justice and human rights for all.

To provide an outline of the concepts of climate change and gender.

Rural practice is a critical emerging social work field. While social workers have always worked in rural areas, climate change, environmental disasters, and the ongoing impacts of globalization are placing significant stress on rural people and communities, and leading to a new evaluation of the environment and its significance for social work. This article examines rural policies and practices that challenge and disrupt effective social work services into rural communities. It also highlights that rural social workers adopt innovative and creative practice models to deal with isolation and other barriers, thus creating the space for a reimagined and radical social work.

Introduction Since European settlement the lives of Australia¿s rural women and men have been shaped by a prevailing gender order (Connell 1987, 1997, 2009) that prescribes and defines socially desirable gender expectations. These gender relations are reinforced by policies that emerge from institutions that are themselves highly gendered, and supported by media. This process has resulted not only in the virtual absence of women from bush folklore and perceptions of national identity, but also in their tenuous access to power, ownership of land and resources, rural and agribusiness leadership positions and political influence. In this chapter I argue that rural women¿s invisibility and a dominant masculine hegemony is supported and enhanced by agricultural and rural policy. Policy is never innocent, and in Australia, through language, assumptions and traditions, rural and agricultural policies have fostered and supported a male normative position. Further I will argue that a lack of gender mainstreaming as a fundamental principle of policy formulation has not only facilitated and prioritised masculine power and control of resources ¿ thereby shaping the ways women and men live their lives ¿ it has also ignored and trivialised the contributions women make to their families, industries and communities. Indicating the level of their invisibility, as late as 1994 Australia¿s farm women were officially recorded as ¿sleeping partner, non-productive¿ (ABS 2002). In more recent times, this has led rural women to adopt resistant actions to highlight their individual and collective positions. Family farming is officially recognised as the dominant mode of agricultural production and in 2011 there were 93,300 Australian farm families (ABS 2012). Not surprisingly given recent climatic conditions and a harsh economic environment, there has been a significant decline in the number of families engaged in farming, with a drop of over 106,000 in the 30 years to 2011, equating to a loss of 294 every month for that period. While officially 72 per cent of Australia¿s farmers are male, this is an occupational, self-defined category in an industry that often requires family effort. It ignores farm partnership arrangements and women¿s various economic contributions. Nonetheless women reportedly make up 28 per cent of the farm workforce and over 35,000 women are known to work off the farm supporting the farm income ¿ 57 per cent of these working 15 hours or more. This equates to at least one-third of family farms being dependent on women¿s income. In this chapter I particularly discuss rural policy and the lack of gender mainstreaming, noting the ways policies have historically shaped and constrained rural women¿s lives and their relationship to land, industry and resource control. Further, I discuss how a primary focus on agricultural productivity and agricultural or sectoral issues overshadows a regional development or territorial approach (Shucksmith 2008) to rural policy. This reduces attention to education, health and service infrastructure, factors that would improve the lives and working opportunities of rural women and their children. Taking a historical perspective enables us to learn from the past, allowing an understanding of the way future rural policies might more effectively enhance and support gender equality. I argue that a radical change in policy assumptions, the introduction of gender mainstreaming and a territorial rather than sectoral approach is necessary if rural communities, and the women and men who live in them, are to survive and thrive.

In the context of a potentially global climate crisis, does gender matter? This book sets out to answer this question, drawing together research from across the globe to demonstrate that in areas as diverse as Australia, Canada, Africa, Asia and Europe, there is emerging evidence that gender does matter. It matters because the experiences of women and men during and after times of climate crisis are different ¿ a difference based on cultural norms and practices, on work roles and access to resources, on safety and security and on different levels of vulnerability resulting from a combination of these factors.We are pleased to present this book, a product of our Gender and Climate Change conference held in Prato, Italy, in 2011. This conference was organized and auspiced by the Gender, Leadership and Social Sustainability (GLASS) research unit at Monash University, Australia. The focus of the book is on research, policy and action ¿ what we know, what we need to know, how we might formally respond in order that support for the most vulnerable is forthcoming and that actions taken are transparent and focused on increasing the resilience of all affected by climate change.

Climate change has emerged as one of the most significant global threats of the twenty-first century. Characterised by both incremental events such as drought and desertification, and catastrophic events such as floods, bushfires and cyclones, climate change has resulted in major social, economic and environmental consequences. To date attention has focused largely in the science of climate change and the economic consequences of declining or eroded resources. Inadequate attention to social consequences is having significant impacts on vulnerable populations. The gendered consequences of these events have only recently emerged as a major factor of international concern. This paper presents findings from work undertaken in the Murray-Darling Basin area of Australia where drought and declining water availability has had significant social and gendered consequences. It also presents findings from work underway in the Pacific regionwhere sea level rises, temperature changes and declining infrastructure and productivity is having major social impacts and exacerbating and changing existing gender inequalities. The paper notes that in both developed and developing nations, in areas of incremental and catastrophic climate events, gender is a major factor in vulnerability, resilience and adaptation. It notes the need for gender to be a significant feature of policy and planning in relation to climate events.

Little of what we know about prison comes from the mouths of prisoners, and very few academic accounts of prison life manage to convey some of its most profound and important features: its daily pressures and frustrations, the culture of the wings and landings, and the relationships which shape the everyday experience of being imprisoned. The Prisoner aims to redress this by foregrounding prisoners' own accounts of prison life in what is an original and penetrating edited collection. Each of its chapters explores a particular prisoner sub-group or an important aspect of prisoners' lives, and each is divided into two sections: extended extracts from interviews with prisoners, followed by academic commentary and analysis written by a leading scholar or practitioner. This structure allows prisoners' voices to speak for themselves, while situating what they say in a wider discussion of research, policy and practice. The result is a rich and evocative portrayal of the lived reality of imprisonment and a poignant insight into prisoners' lives. The book aims to bring to life key penological issues and to provide an accessible text for anyone interested in prisons, including students, practitioners and a general audience. It seeks to represent and humanize a group which is often silent in discussions of imprisonment, and to shine a light on a world which is generally hidden from view.

Children are deserving targets of healthcare policy. However, to make a difference to children's lives, health and welfare policy goals have to be translated into services. For children and families living in small Australian rural communities, access to assistance and support from health services is dependent on the administrative and technical detail of health policy. This paper reports the findings of a case study investigating health care in two small rural towns in New South Wales. The study takes a pragmatic and practical approach to identifying the impact of policy intent on improving the health of rural children. The study identified the way policy goals are translated into practice by interviewing three distinct groups; policy makers, policy implementers and policy recipients. The research found that health policy was not well costed, implemented or available to children who lived outside regional or metropolitan areas. There were limited avenues for children, parents or health workers to influence the policy development or implementation process. © 2010 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Agricultural productivity has trebled in Australia over the last 50 years, suggesting that all is well in the heartland of agriculture - the inland rural communities around which much of our production is based. None the less in this chapter I sound a note of warning, arguing that an over-reliance on economic parameters as the only indicator of success will inevitably compromise the industry. Social sustainability is critically important to an industry that relies so heavily on farm families. Yet access to education, employment, health and welfare service and transport and telecommunications infrastructure is reducing the attractiveness of rural areas. Sustaining families and attracting young people into the industry are vital to its survival. In this chapter I introduce the notion of multifunctionality, a concept in favour outside Australia, as a way of valuing rural areas beyond their productive capacity. Thus when we assess the amenity, heritage and cultural value of rural areas we move beyond the notion of economics as determinant. The concept opens up the need for wider investment in human, institutional, environmental and social capital as ways of revitalizing rural communities and of ultimately ensuring the future viability of agriculture. © CAB International 2007. All rights reserved.

In 2020, social workers across the world responded to the global COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent strict lockdown procedures over several months. In many countries, including Australia and New Zealand, this virtual shutdown period necessitated a reframing of social work practice to incorporate factors including delivery of services via virtual means and more limited access for vulnerable clients. This article draws on the integration of two methods designed to address the research question: 'How has social work practice in Australia and New Zealand been affected by COVID-19?' These include (i) a narrative review of papers published during 2020 on social work practice and the COVID-19 pandemic and (ii) an online survey, undertaken from October to December 2020, of Australian and New Zealand social workers. The questionnaire data were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and thematic analysis. The findings of this article details include the significant impacts of COVID-19 on practice, the increased needs of clients, including a rise in health issues, violence, homelessness and financial concerns, and the resulting critical changes to social work workloads. Social workers also reported greater use of technologies to deliver services and fears for their families and themselves if exposed to COVID-19.

Concerns for river health in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) area and shifting priorities for water use have led to a significant process of water reform over the last decade. The MDB area, also known as the food bowl of Australia, produces much of the country's food and is home to a significant portion of the population. A long-term drought, historical over-allocation of water for irrigation and climate variability have led to mounting concerns about the long-term viability of the rivers. While the reform process has resulted in the Commonwealth government taking control of the rivers from the States, it has also been influenced by changes in governments and consequent shifts in water allocation priorities from a privileging of agriculture to a broader approach encompassing economic, environmental and social concerns. This had led to uncertainty for the people and communities in the Basin and some confusion between the various layers of governance structures. This paper presents the results of exploratory research conducted with key, high-level stakeholders involved in water reform to examine their perceptions of the evolving water policy process. Despite agreement amongst stakeholders that returning water to the environment to ensure river health is critical, our research reveals significant tensions between stakeholders concerning the evolving process, particularly centred on the potential social outcomes and fairness and equity. This suggests the need for more integrated and transparent governance structures, attention to levels of trust between partners and a common vision that incorporates environmental, economic and social goals.

Food security remains a critical global issue, made more difficult because of the rising world population, climate challenges affecting food production and a focus on market-based solutions that undermine subsistence production in vulnerable rural areas. Particularly affected are countries across Asia where poverty, hunger and malnourishment affect a significant proportion of the population. Drawing on Sen¿s entitlement theory, we argue that a shift in focus from national food production to intra-household food access enables a critical reflection on consumption smoothing strategies adopted at this level. In particular, we draw attention to the tendency for women and girls to eat less as an intra-household adaptation strategy. We present findings from our research in rural areas of Bangladesh and note that adaptation strategies adopted by households in response to food insecurity. We note that strategies designed to address food insecurity must include gender mainstreaming to ensure that women and girls are not taking a disproportionate responsibility for intra-household food security.

Rural mainstreaming reviews policies to ensure people in all parts of a country receive comparable policy treatment. Rural proofing is the method used to ensure that rural mainstreaming is correctly carried out. This article offers a critical analysis of rural proofing. It examines English policies in this area and questions how applicable similar policies might be in an Australian context. We argue that while rural proofing intuitively feels like a positive development for a country rich in rural and remote areas, there are many complexities to importing a policy designed for a different social and spatial context. In Australia, this is almost certain to render attempts to implement the English rural proofing concept futile. Indeed, we contend that this concept can potentially lead to the marginalization of rural issues. We conclude by identifying some of the complex questions our argument identifies which should be addressed by Australian policy makers before designing specific policies.

Climate change and environmental disasters are destabilising communities across the world. In a challenging address to the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP) in Doha in 2012, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon urged the global community to respond with conscientious foresight. This article discusses how social work might respond to this challenge. It outlines the social implications, social work theorists¿ reconceptualisation of the environmental space as a domain of practice and ways that the global social work community can act to address these significant global challenges.

Disasters result in devastating human, economic, and environmental effects. The paper highlights women¿s active participation in community-based disaster recovery efforts drawing from the results of the ¿Rebuilding Lives Post-disaster: Innovative Community Practices for Sustainable Development¿ by an international research partnership. Two case studies are presented from Pakistan and the USA to demonstrate how women contribute to building resilience and promoting sustainable development in diverse post-disaster contexts. The policy and practice implications are relevant for discussions regarding the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals and framework.

This article examines the current knowledge shaping our understanding of human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation in Australia, a major destination country in a poorly researched region (Oceania). Challenges to developing accurate and useful knowledge: varied and poorly understood definitions, difficulties in gathering accurate data about a hidden problem, and narrowly focused research are explored. The article describes Australia's current responses to sex trafficking and critiques current knowledge development strategies, concluding with recommendations for ways forward in researching this challenging and globally significant problem. © The Author(s) 2012.

This paper outlines the link between child and forced marriage, dowry and climate changes in Bangladesh. Drawing on a three year research study on the gendered impacts of climate change, we argue that climate crises are creating significant economic hardships. This has led to dowry being viewed by the families of young men as a form of capital accumulation. For the families of girls, dowry has become a significant burden, a burden that increases with the age of the girl. We argue that the economic crises created by climate challenges are leading to an increase in child and forced marriages because the dowry is cheaper. We conclude that attention to climate challenges must take a much broader focus on social consequences in order to protect the human rights of women and girls in vulnerable communities.

Gender mainstreaming refers to the process of incorporating a gender perspective to any action, policy, legislation or action in order to ensure that the concerns of all are addressed and that gender inequalities are not perpetuated through institutional means. However the implementation of gender mainstreaming across the globe has not necessarily resulted in advances for women, as it is usually associated with a winding back of women-focused policies and programs. Emerging research indicates that climate change has significant gendered impacts and yet policies and practices designed to address and shape mitigation and adaptation strategies have failed to incorporate gender mainstreaming. Further the scientific and technological focus of many of these institutional responses has led to a lack of attention to social outcomes more generally. This has resulted in a lack of attention to the vulnerable groups, including women. This paper outlines an argument not only for gender mainstreaming of climate policy but also for policy focused specifically on women's empowerment. Gender mainstreaming is essential in ensuring that not only climate policies and programs are comprehensive, but so too are women-focused policies designed to ensure that women are supported and empowered to take action on their own behalf.

This paper outlines water reform policy in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin area. Drawing on research with key informants and farm family members, it notes the signifi cant social impacts in the communities in the region and the limits to adaptation evident amongst people in these areas. It outlines the vulnerability of individuals and communities and notes the need for actions to build resilience and to enable transformation in these areas. With this in mind, policy strategies are outlined that may assist long-term social sustainability in this region. Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

The person-in-the-environment concept has largely been interpreted by social workers to indicate social networks and relationships, ignoring the physical environment and its complex impact on human health and wellbeing. This article examines the environmental domain, noting the critical role social workers can have in this field as a consequence of climate events and global warming. The article notes the significance of gender as a key factor in vulnerability to disasters and outlines the need for social workers to consider gender as a critical indicator in their work in this emerging area. Embodiment, connection to place, poverty, and cultural awareness are also significant, but often overlooked, factors in a social work response to environmental disasters. Ecological and ecofeminist theories give a direction for social work theory and practice in the postdisaster space. The article challenges social workers to reconsider the person-in-the-environment as a complex and critical emerging domain of social work theories and practice, a domain where gender awareness is fundamental. © 2013 Copyright Australian Association of Social Workers.

An ongoing crisis in Australian agriculture resulting from climate crises including drought, decreasing irrigation water, more recent catastrophic flooding, and an uncertain policy environment is reshaping gender relations in the intimate sphere of the farm family. Drawing on research conducted in the Murray-Darling Basin area of Australia we ask the question: Does extreme hardship/climate crises change highly inequitable gender relations in agriculture? As farm income declines, Australian farm women are more likely to be working off farm for critical family income while men continue to work on farm often in circumstances of damaged landscapes, rising debt, and limited production. This paper examines the way gender relations are being renegotiated in a time of significant climate crisis. Our research suggests that climate crises have indeed led to changes in gender relations and that some changes are unexpected. Whereas one would logically assume that women's enhanced economic contribution would increase their power in gender negotiations, we argue that this does not necessarily occur because their contribution is viewed as a farm survival strategy. Men are committed to prioritizing the farm and view women's income generating work as critical to this purpose and yet, paradoxically, long for a return to traditional farm roles. We find that women are actively resisting traditional gender relations by reshaping a role for themselves beyond the farm-in the process moving physically and mentally away from a farm family ideology, questioning gender inequalities, and by extension their relationships. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

This article addresses the uneven impacts of climate change on women. To date, there has been a significant emphasis on climate science and technological solutions to aid mitigation and adaptation strategies. This has led to a form of global managerialism that presupposes that all people can adapt with the right resources and knowledge. In this article, it is argued that the differential impacts of climate change on women demand that climate actions and strategies require gender sensitivity and that further research on climate change, adaptations, and actions includes a gendered analysis. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Introduction. Refugees have many complex health care needs which should be addressed by the primary health care services, both on their arrival in resettlement countries and in their transition to long-term care. The aim of this narrative synthesis is to identify the components of primary health care service delivery models for such populations which have been effective in improving access, quality and coordination of care. Methods. A systematic review of the literature, including published systematic reviews, was undertaken. Studies between 1990 and 2011 were identified by searching Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Australian Public Affairs Information Service-Health, Health and Society Database, Multicultural Australian and Immigration Studies and Google Scholar. A limited snowballing search of the reference lists of all included studies was also undertaken. A stakeholder advisory committee and international advisers provided papers from grey literature. Only English language studies of evaluated primary health care models of care for refugees in developed countries of resettlement were included. Results: Twenty-five studies met the inclusion criteria for this review of which 15 were Australian and 10 overseas models. These could be categorised into six themes: service context, clinical model, workforce capacity, cost to clients, health and non-health services. Access was improved by multidisciplinary staff, use of interpreters and bilingual staff, no-cost or low-cost services, outreach services, free transport to and from appointments, longer clinic opening hours, patient advocacy, and use of gender-concordant providers. These services were affordable, appropriate and acceptable to the target groups. Coordination between the different health care services and services responding to the social needs of clients was improved through case management by specialist workers. Quality of care was improved by training in cultural sensitivity and appropriate use of interpreters. Conclusion: The elements of models most frequently associated with improved access, coordination and quality of care were case management, use of specialist refugee health workers, interpreters and bilingual staff. These findings have implications for workforce planning and training. © 2013 Joshi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

The rate of suicide amongst Australia's rural men is significantly higher than rural women, urban men or urban women. There are many explanations for this phenomenon including higher levels of social isolation, lower socio-economic circumstances and ready access to firearms. Another factor is the challenge of climate transformation for farmers. In recent times rural areas of Australia have been subject to intense climate change events including a significant drought that has lingered on for over a decade. Climate variability together with lower socio-economic conditions and reduced farm production has combined to produce insidious impacts on the health of rural men. This paper draws on research conducted over several years with rural men working on farms to argue that attention to the health and well-being of rural men requires an understanding not only of these factors but also of the cultural context, inequitable gender relations and a dominant form of masculine hegemony that lauds stoicism in the face of adversity. A failure to address these factors will limit the success of health and welfare programs for rural men. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

With advances in medical technology, more people are surviving major trauma experiences. Those with a traumatic brain injury are one such group who may survive for several decades with significant health consequences including physical, cognitive, and psychosocial sequelae. Traumatic brain injury sufferers are typically young males with a premorbid history of risk taking. Consequently, the differential needs of female traumatic brain injury survivors are less likely to be acknowledged in the literature or by allied health workers. A large quantitative and qualitative study of people with traumatic brain injury was conducted in rural areas of New South Wales, Australia in 2004-2005. The qualitative component of the study included in-depth interviews with 11 women and 21 men. This paper focuses on the interviews with the 11 women who live in two rural areas of New South Wales. These data illustrate the psychosocial consequences of traumatic brain injury for women. They reveal that women are particularly vulnerable to isolation, disempowerment, and in extreme cases, abuse, and are less likely to have a carer. The need for gender to be a factor in ongoing social work and allied health treatment and support of traumatic brain injury sufferers and their carers is evident from this research. © 2012 Australian Association of Social Workers.

Aims: This study aimed to explore rural Australians' perceptions of social and cultural factors influencing alcohol use in their communities. Methods: Semi-structured interviews exploring rural community key informants' (n = 46) perceptions of social and cultural factors influencing alcohol consumption in their community were conducted. A narrative analysis identified cultural capital as a salient concept for explaining how rural community life is created and sustained via drinking practices. Results: Themes relating to participants' accounts of learning to drink, normal drinking; exclusion because of not drinking and problematic drinkers are described. Conclusion: In rural communities, beliefs and values about drinking as a positive social practice are transmitted, rewarded and reproduced across multiple groups and settings, reinforcing that drinking is an integral part of Australian rural culture. Drinking is so important that engaging in drinking practices creates and sustains cultural capital. As a result, alcohol-related harm is of little concern to rural dwellers. © The Author 2012. Medical Council on Alcohol and Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Primary objective: To investigate the participation of adults living with traumatic brain injury in regional and rural NSW as measured by the Participation Objective Participation Subjective (POPS) measure. Research design: A quantitative survey of a single cohort as the first of a two phase mixed methods study. Methods and procedures: One hundred and thirty-one adults with a TBI were recruited through eight rural brain injury rehabilitation programmes in NSW. These adults completed a range of survey instruments, including the POPS. Main outcomes and results: The POPS measure supported findings from other research that identified varying impacts of TBI. However, in contrast to other studies, there was no correlation between participation scores and age, gender, time since injury and severity of injury. Conclusions: The findings from this study suggest that the issue of participation of adults with TBI living in non-metropolitan areas needs to be further researched. © 2011 Informa UK Ltd. All rights reserved.

That climate change mitigation strategies may disproportionately affect rural people and communities is evidenced by the introduction of water mitigation policies in Australia. The significant consequences of water policy for irrigation farming families and communities in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin - the food bowl of Australia - are outlined. This policy emerges from a hierarchical model of governance and has resulted in uneven and perverse outcomes for people in rural areas. Lack of attention to metagovernance and a misplaced trust in the water market has left rural people and communities vulnerable to significant stress and disaffection, impacting on their resilience and adaptability to change. A partnership model of governance is suggested to guide climate change mitigation policies to ensure that the capacity of rural people and communities to adapt to significant change is enhanced rather than eroded. © 2011 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Debate continues to rage as to the veracity of evidence around the permanence of climate change. There is no doubt that changes are occurring across the world and that these changes are causing significant social hardship, including food and water insecurity and large-scale movements of people. What is also emerging in research across the world is that these social impacts and adaptations are highly gendered. This article draws on several years of research on the Australian drought and more recent research on declining water availability in the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia. It notes the significant social impacts, particularly in remote and irrigation areas, and draws out the gendered impacts of these changes. The article argues for more sensitive rights-based social policy to address people who are under extraordinary stress during times of unparalleled change. © 2010 The Australian Sociological Association.

Background: The relocation of women from their rural communities to birth in a centralised hospital is becoming increasingly common as maternity units close in rural areas of Australia. The significance for Aboriginal women when they are denied the support of kin around the time of birth but have that support re-established postnatally is explored. Methods: This paper gathered data from multiple sources including in-depth interviews with three Aboriginal mothers and one partner; observational field notes; and during debriefing, the knowledge and experience of an Aboriginal midwife. Thematic analysis was utilised to both explore and critique the collected data. Findings and discussion: Aboriginal women are particularly disadvantaged by maternity unit closures in rural areas of the south eastern Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). However, contrary to the expectation that this would result in postnatal mental health problems, the support the Aboriginal participants in this study received from kin may have had a mediating effect which enhanced their well-being and possibly prevented mental ill health. Recommendations: Recommendations relate to strategies and policies that have the potential to increase community governance and feelings of cultural safety for Aboriginal childbearing women living in rural areas. Conclusion: While the practice of forcing Aboriginal women to relocate around the time of birth has a negative impact on perinatal health outcomes, kinship support may be a mediating factor. © 2010 Australian College of Midwives.

The divide between rich and poor in Australia is starkly apparent in health status statistics; the poorest Australians have the poorest health, and many live in rural Australia. However, little is known about financially deprived rural citizen¿s perceptions of their own health and their expectations of health care services. As a result, exploratory in-depth interviews were conducted with eleven rural residents dependent upon government income support. Ten of the eleven participants had chronic health problems, and these were being addressed symptomatically. The children of the participants also required interventions for a range of physical, emotional and mental problems. The participants relied on local services and local practitioners to provide suitable interventions and to direct them to other services if required. They had minimal knowledge, control or choice in the type of intervention or outcomes. In this group, poor health was normalised and future health not considered. Thus, those with most to gain from health promotion and prevention activities and social inclusion programs are unlikely to benefit because they may normalise poor health. Concepts of good health, health literacy, informed consent, choice of intervention or practitioner are meaningless in this rural context of deprivation. These findings suggest that the population who endure the burden of ill-health will be by-passed by current and popular public health techniques of health promotion because rural people with poor health have low expectations of their own health and health care. Similarly, health service providers have high expectations of health and the rational choices of the population they serve. Thus, there is a major disconnect between the expectations of both. © 2010 eContent Management Pty Ltd.

Background: This paper describes how women experienced what came to be labelled as 'bullying' by a small number of midwives when they were evacuated from their rural and remote areas of NSW, Australia to a maternity unit to birth. Research question: What is the experience of women who are required to travel away from their NSW rural/remote communities to birth? Participants and methods: Forty-two participants together with a number of their partners/support people were interviewed indepth for this qualitative, exploratory study. Upon thematic analysis of the transcribed interviews, an unexpected finding was that four participants (plus one partner) described experiences which were interpreted as bullying, by a small number of midwives working with them. Women identifying as Aboriginal were especially likely to share stories of midwifery bullying. Results, discussion and conclusion: Emotional and cultural safety of women must be a prime consideration of midwives. Strategies to reverse power differentials between midwives and women are urgently required to eradicate bullying by any midwife. Crown Copyright © 2009.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this article was to learn from women in rural New South Wales (NSW) Australia, their experiences of labouring en route to birth in a centralised maternity unit. METHODS: This qualitative study was exploratory and descriptive. It was part of a larger project that explored women's experiences when they birthed away from their rural communities. Participants were recruited from communities all over rural NSW where a maternity unit had closed. Forty-two female participants and three of their male partners shared their stories of 73 labours and births. This article draws on data collected during in-depth interviews with 12 participants and one partner who shared their experiences of labouring en route to a centralised maternity service. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim for the purpose of thematic analysis. Exemplars, using the participants' own words and highlighting story are identified as a tool used for data synthesis and presentation. RESULTS: Two themes were identified. These relate to the way the risk of dangerous road travel is ignored in obstetric risk discourse, and the deprivations experienced when women labour en route. An unexpected finding was the positive nature of one woman's experience of birthing by the side of the road. CONCLUSIONS: Many participants questioned why they needed to risk unsafe road travel when their preference was to labour and birth in their local communities with a midwife.

Australia is experiencing a major drought, one that has devastated the landscape and people for up to ten years. This major disaster has accelerated ongoing rural restructuring and created changes in the way farm family members order and live their lives. Yet despite evidence that drought is a gendered experience, that is, that generally women and men experience and respond to drought differently, and despite a rhetorical move to gender mainstreaming in Australian policy circles, drought policy remains significantly gender blind. In this article I use the example of emergency support to poverty stricken farm families to show how agricultural departments that attend to a notional norm of family farming as a unitary male pursuit can actively discriminate against women in their efforts to preserve the farm and support their families. The article exposes gender mainstreaming as an 'empty signifier' that is contextually grounded and that its success is highly dependent on making these issues transparent. For gender equity efforts to reach women at local levels, I argue that gender mainstreaming requires international collaboration by gender specialists to facilitate greater attention to gender assessments by national bodies. It also requires national coalitions of gender expert units, women's organisations and academics to work together to expose culturally specific gendered issues and discriminatory outcomes.

Many small communities across the vast interior of Australia are under pressure from ongoing rural restructuring and a long-running drought. Socioeconomic indicators suggest that rural people are significantly disadvantaged by comparison with their urban counterparts. While these factors are evident, less well understood are the circumstances of rural and remote young people. In this article we draw on research conducted in 2001 and 2004 on the employment and educational experiences of young people in these communities. Using Reimer's typology of relations associated with social exclusion - market, bureaucratic, associative and communal - we indicate that rural and remote young people are experiencing rising levels of social exclusion. Their access to education and employment is restricted through no fault of their own, and is in fact, obstructed by government policy. The need for sensitive policy to increase the social inclusion of young people in rural and remote areas is evident. © 2009 The Australian Sociological Association.

This paper examines the provision of distance education to young people studying from their isolated properties in remote areas of Australia. While Australia's innovative approach to remote education is well established, this paper challenges the gender and structural assumptions underpinning this approach. A sustained period of rural restructuring and a long period of drought have changed the social relations of agriculture in a number of significant ways that ultimately undermine distance education as it is currently constructed. The assumption that mothers are available to provide home tutoring is no longer valid given the pressures on them to work on properties due to staff cutbacks and off properties to earn additional income. Further, the trend for farm family properties to be amalgamated into larger holdings and for these holdings to be run by farm workers also undermines the assumption that parents are willing, able and resourced to home tutor their children for long periods. This paper raises significant questions about the adequacy of current distance education provisions in remote areas.

Water has become a critical issue in Australia. Who has it and who determines priorities have become highly politicised. Yet the basis on which priorities are set and stakeholder views incorporated is less well defined. The commodification of water through the introduction of a water trading policy and the use of market principles suggest a prioritising of the economic over environmental and social concerns. In this paper we discuss the way water decisions are determined, outlining the myriad bodies through which the decisions about water priorities are determined and noting an inherent economic bias in the rationale behind water decisions. We introduce the notion of social flow to indicate a largely overlooked aspect of water use ¿ the social good resulting from water use by community members ¿ to argue that this factor should be given greater priority in the way water allocations are determined, priorities set and stakeholder views incorporated. © 2008 eContent Management Pty Ltd.

Water, or lack of it, has become an issue of national and international significance. Who gets it and for what purpose are critical decisions being made right around the globe. In this paper we argue that the bodies through which these decisions are made are significantly gendered, with men dominating the ranks of water decision making bodies. Further we argue that the dominant factors that drive decisions are the economic value of water followed closely by the environmental issues associated with low water supply. Drawing on earlier work, we argue that the social factors associated with water, or what we refer to as social flow, are largely overlooked in decisions about water allocation. We assert that a significant reason for this is the gendered make up of water bodies. We therefore conclude that it is essential that women become more prominent on these bodies and that greater attention be given to the gendering of decision making bodies and the factors that drive these decisions. © 2008 eContent Management Pty Ltd.

The long-running Australian drought has had significant economic and environmental consequences, not least its impact on water supplies for major cities. What is less well understood are the social consequences affecting the farm families and communities reliant on agricultural production. In this article we focus on the mental health outcomes for farm men, noting that they are more vulnerable to extreme measures such as suicide. We argue that a dominant form of hegemonic masculinity in rural areas, which has served men well in good times, allowing them power and privilege, is inherently unhealthy in times of significant stress such as the current drought. The stoicism so typical of normative rural masculinity prevents men from seeking help when their health is severely compromised. We argue that attending to the health of rural men during drought requires attention not just to health outcomes but also to hegemonic masculinity. © 2008 The Australian Sociological Association.

INTRODUCTION: Rural healthcare provision is limited in many areas because of workforce recruitment and retention issues.Pharmacists and social workers are examples of allied health professionals who play vital roles in the provision of rural health care.Personal factors including an individual's fit with a local community and their professional role were explored to determine the way they affect access to rural health care. Design: Accidental sampling then 11 qualitative interviews with pharmacists and social workers. Setting: Six rural communities with populations less than 5000, New South Wales, Australia.METHODOLOGY: Deductive and inductive analysis of data.RESULTS: Exploration of health work in small rural towns identified that participants' work and personal experiences are affected by their professional role and associated tasks, and by the way the community perceives that role. Social workers are likely to provide outreach or visiting services and use different professional networks than pharmacists. Social workers tend to perceive their client's problems as related to poverty and rural decline with limited options for successful intervention through the health system. Pharmacists are confident in their role as treatment providers and have a thorough knowledge of their own community, although they use a limited range of other local healthcare providers, tending to rely on doctors. Access to healthcare services is affected by organisational strategies to manage demand on services, privacy and confidentiality and the community's perception of the effectiveness of the service and the individual worker. Local knowledge and local context shaped the services pharmacists and social workers provided, and the way they managed their personal and professional activities in a small community.CONCLUSION: Access to rural health services is affected by an individual's concerns about privacy and confidentiality, by the reputation of the healthcare worker and by the value system of the health worker. Different professions use different networks of health care, subsequently approaching rural social conditions and their related problems from diverse perspectives. This influences the health worker's experience of effectiveness in their professional role and the way they manage their high degree of visibility in small communities. Implications: The need for a systematic evaluation of health service access emphasising the particular aspects of local rural context is highlighted. Such a work should include investigation of multidisciplinary models of service provision.This will optimise the range of health care available to small rural communities.

The present paper details the results of research conducted with drought-affected farm families in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The study reveals the significant health and welfare stresses experienced by families and the lack of access to services and support. The research was conducted in three sites in rural and remote areas of NSW in 2003. Farm family members, service providers, and other community key informants were interviewed. The paper outlines ways that the social work profession can respond to significant natural disasters.

The impacts of globalisation and rural restructuring on health service delivery in rural Australia have been significant. In the present paper, it is argued that declining health service access represents a failure of policy. Rural communities across the world are in a state of flux, and Australia is no different: rural communities are ageing at faster rates than urban communities and young people are out-migrating in large numbers. During the past 5 years, rural Australia has also experienced a severe and widespread drought that has exacerbated rural poverty, and impacted on the health and well-being of rural Australians. Australian governments have responded to globalising forces by introducing neoliberal policy initiatives favouring market solutions and championing the need for self-reliance among citizens. The result for rural Australia has been a withdrawal of services at a time of increased need. This paper addresses the social work response to these changes. © 2007 Blaokwell Publishing Ltd.

Globally, small rural communities frequently are demographically similar to their neighbours and are consistently found to have a number of problems linked to the international phenomenon of rural decline and urban drift. For example, it is widely noted that rural populations have poor health status and aging populations. In Australia, multiple state and national policies and programs have been instigated to redress this situation. Yet few rural residents would agree that their town is the same as an apparently similar sized one nearby or across the country. This article reports a project that investigated the way government policies, health and community services, population characteristics and local peculiarities combined for residents in two small rural towns in New South Wales. Interviews and focus groups with policy makers, health and community service workers and community members identified the felt, expressed, normative and comparative needs of residents in the case-study towns. Key findings include substantial variation in service provision between towns because of historical funding allocations, workforce composition, natural disasters and distance from the nearest regional centre. Health and community services were more likely to be provided because of available funding, rather than identified community needs. While some services, such as mental illness intervention and GPs, are clearly in demand in rural areas, in these examples, more health services were not needed. Rather, flexibility in the services provided and work practices, role diversity for health and community workers and community profiling would be more effective to target services. The impact of industry, employment and recreation on health status cannot be ignored in local development.

A major drought has been a feature of the Australian rural landscape for much of the new century. Inland rural Australia, the main locus of large-scale agricultural production, is a site where discursive practices construct a reality that disempowers women, where men engaged in agricultural pursuits are regarded as farmers and women are more likely to be accorded secondary status despite their contributions to the economic and social survival of farm families. The dominant discourses and imagery of drought have been framed around its impact on the landscape and the decline in agricultural production. Consequently, the narratives of women's lives have been subjugated during a time of significant hardship. This article presents three case studies of Australian women on drought-stricken farms. They are drawn from a larger study conducted in three sites in rural New South Wales during 2003. These stories reveal the taken-for-granted labour undertaken by women and the multi-dimensional and gendered reality of the drought experience. © 2006 The Author. Journal Compilation © 2006 European Society for Rural Sociology.

Access to health services in rural Australia has been particularly problematic because of the vast geographical areas and the sparse population distribution across the inland. The focus on health servicing has been very much on primary health care with most attention being giving to the distribution of doctors in rural Australia. This study takes a closer look at rural health servicing through the eyes of women in rural Australia. Drawing on a survey of 820 women, the study revealed that a focus on primary health care may be resulting in a lack of attention to women's health in areas, such as maternity models of care, domestic violence and mental health. The study also reveals the disquiet of Australian rural women at the poor state of health services.

Rural Australia is in crisis. Decades of restructuring, overlaid with a crippling drought, have left small inland rural areas facing major social problems. Population loss and a decline in service and infrastructure typify rural communities at a time when rural people face increased stress, social isolation and mental health problems.At the same time, federal and state governments have largely turned their backs on rural communities arguing that rural people must become more self-reliant. In this paper, I argue that circumstances demand a commitment from social workers to develop a new model of rural social work, and put forward my ideas about what this model might look like. I invite readers to comment on and contribute to the further development of this model so that social workers might make a contribution to the enhancement and survival of rural communities. © 2005 eContent Management Pty Ltd.

This paper draws on original research conducted in 2003 with drought-affected people and communities in inland NSW. The paper outlines the scale of the drought, its social impacts and the resultant need for services. Income support mechanisms aimed at drought-affected people and communities such as the Exceptional Services scheme have proved cumbersome, slow and overly complicated leaving many people without income for considerable periods. Our research shows that human services in the areas studied are largely overloaded and inadequately resourced. Many services rely on aged volunteers and there has been significant pressure on charities to deliver services not provided elsewhere. Delivery of human services in times of crisis such as drought is however, not straightforward. Many people affected by drought are unwilling to approach human services preferring stoicism to any admission of need. One result of this attitude is that ¿acceptable¿ services such as the Rural Financial Counsellors are vastly overloaded and some of these cases may be better handled by trained human service workers. The paper provides insights into more appropriate service models for rural communities in crisis. © 2004 eContent Management Pty Ltd.

Globalisation and changes in agriculture have resulted in major social changes in inland Australia. Depopulation of the inland has led many to speculate on the future of rural towns and rural people. This paper will examine population drifts from country towns to cities and from the inland to the coastal regions and, in particular, the out-migration of young people. In doing this, the paper focuses on several small towns in central New South Wales that have been the subject of intensive study during 2000 and 2001. Drawing on analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, in-depth interviews and focus groups with key informants and surveys with young people and their parents in small rural communities the paper will report on the loss of young people and the greater loss of young women from these areas. It is argued that this outmigration of young people is linked to the need to seek higher education and also to the loss of full-time jobs for young people. The loss of these jobs is the result of changes in agricultural production, labour market restructuring and a withdrawal of public and private sector services. It is further argued that current reliance by governments on market based and community self-help solutions is not enough to provide a future for rural communities. Even if economic growth occurs this will not solve the problem of loss of young people, and the greater loss of young women, nor will it address the issue of access to education and training. Rather far greater attention to human capital (access to education, training and employment), institutional capital (government and non-government services and infrastructure) and social capital (strong networks) is needed if Australia's small rural towns are to survive and flourish.

Globalization, international policy manipulations such as the US farm bill, and national policy responses have received a great deal of media coverage in recent times. These international and national events are having a major impact on agricultural production in Australia. There is some suggestion that they are, in fact, responsible for a downturn in the fortunes of agriculture. Yet, it is more likely that these issues are acting to continue and exacerbate a trend towards reduced viability for farm families evident in economic and social trends since at least the 1950s. Nevertheless, globalization and Australia's policy responses have left farm families more vulnerable in the global world. What then do we know about their impact at farm gate level? Just who is doing the farming in Australia in the 21st century and how are these people responding to major world politics? This paper will focus on the social aspects of agricultural production in Australia noting social trends and drawing attention to the changing social relations of agriculture. The dominance of farm families, the role of corporate agriculture, ethnic diversity, the importance of women, and the practice of farm transfers will be canvassed in this paper. © 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

The social and economic effects of globalisation in rural communities is well documented. Ageing populations, loss of services and employment opportunities are typical of rural areas in many western industrialised countries. Focusing on declining access to tertiary education, this paper argues that a lack of adequate policy is creating socially excluded young people in country towns. In particular, drawing on research conducted in the Centre for Rural Social Research at Charles Sturt University, it argues that the financial cost of education is creating a huge barrier for many rural families. If rural areas are to benefit from globalisation, a skilled workforce is critical. Declining rural access to tertiary education exacerbates power differentials resulting from globalisation and therefore restrains access to the opportunities of globalisation and hinders rural revitalisation.

Australian rural women are largely invisible in public areas of influence. This paper presents findings of research into Australian rural women's public profile in powerful agricultural organisations. Using a survey of Chairs of influential Boards and follow up interviews, as well as a survey of women in influential positions it shows that the Australian agricultural agenda is largely framed around a masculinist position and that women remain shadowy presences of outraged silence. Few men in powerful positions express disquiet about the current situation, with most arguing that appointments are based on merit. This paper exposes the fallacy of such a position noting that merit-based appointment is impossible under current selection processes. Disturbingly women who have gained access to positions of influence report overt and covert harassment from male colleagues. The paper concludes that changes to organisational culture are essential if women are to gain access to positions of influence.

In Australia, as in the rest of the industrialised world, social capital has been identified as a key element in rural regeneration. For example, the Prime Minister, John Howard, speaks openly of the need for a ¿social coalition¿ between communities, governments and businesses that will build social cohesion and trust at community level. For two decades successive Australian governments have followed the world-wide trend in industrialised nations to devolve responsibility for social welfare programs to local areas and to nongovernment agencies, the stated rationale being to break down welfare dependency and to promote individual responsibility. The dismantling of the welfare state and the triumph of capitalism have been defining features of the Australian landscape in recent years. © 2002 eContent Management Pty Ltd.

In the context of a discussion of globalisation this paper examines developments in social policy aimed at building civil society and enhancing social capital. It notes that policy driven by a desire for minimal government intervention and market dominance has resulted in a clear disadvantage in rural Australia and growing inequities between urban and rural communities. Clearly poverty has a postcode and overwhelmingly the postcodes are rural. At the same time the demography of ¿rural¿ Australia is changing as the inland empties and the coastal regions experience population overload with its accompanying environmental problems. This paper discusses the need for more effective targeted involvement of the state in rural policy development if we are to preserve quality of life, address inequities and overcome the divide between city and country. There is a strong role for social work in forging rural community development. However, the profession has to be much more politically astute in its dealings with governments and community groups if it is to carve out a central role. Strategies are discussed to develop such a role. Margaret Alston is an Associate Professor in social work and is Director of the Centre for Rural Social Research at Charles Sturt University, New South Wales. She is a Director for the Foundation for Australian Agricultural Women, a member of the Advisory Board for the Social Sciences Unit, Bureau of Rural Sciences, a member of the Board of General Practice Education Australia and on the Editorial Committee for Australian Social Work. © 2002, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The National (Country) Party, traditional beneficiary of a countrymindedness ethos in rural and regional Australia, suffered a significant electoral setback at the 1998 federal election from a new conservative force in Australian politics, the One Nation Party. One Nation has been characterised as the party of the 'old' Australia, those least able to cope with the pace of recent social and economic changes, rationalisation and centralisation of services and the exodus of people from rural and regional areas. Such a characterisation is supported by findings from this study of the geography of voting and the social correlates of One Nation's support base in the Farrer electoral division in south-western New South Wales.

This paper examines rural poverty indicators arguing that governments have failed to provide the equitable access to resources needed to empower rural people to address their poverty. The paper illustrates how the decline in the fortunes of agriculture has led to a rapid disintegration of rural communities and to human rights concerns in relation to rural people. On quality of life indicators such as health and education, rural people are seriously disad-vantaged by comparison with urban Australians. Yet, the failure of governments to develop integrated rural policy frameworks that deliver equitable resources and their reliance on market forces is leading to the destruction of rural communities. For social workers, the challenge is to provide advocacy and policy leadership. © 2000, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This paper discusses the lack of women in leadership positions in Australian agriculture. Using a feminist framework, it examines the gendered nature of power and organizations and analyses the processes that operate to exclude women. The role of the state in supporting male dominance of agriculture is discussed, as is the role of Australian femocrats in seeking to overcome women's disadvantage. The paper draws on the results of a 1997 survey of the chairs of 140 Australian boards associated with agriculture to demonstrate that those with the power to effect change are insensitive to the barriers women face when seeking leadership. Most choose to locate the reasons for women's exclusion in real or imagined inadequacies of women ignoring gendered organizational structures and processes. The paper calls for action on the part of governments, industry leaders and women's groups to address the lack of women in decision-making positions in agriculture. © 1998 European Society for Rural Sociology.

This paper examines the lack of recognition and devaluing of the work of Australian farm women by examining the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Eco nomics (ABARE) report, Women on Farms (Gooday 1995). The paper argues that the work of ABARE and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is fundamentally flawed by their definition of what constitutes valid work and by their perception that farm family labour can be differentiated by gender such that the work of men is accorded greater value while the work of women is reduced or ignored. By examining the nature of farm family labour, analysing the notions of work and by incorporating a radical fem inist framework to this analysis, this paper challenges ABS and ABARE to re-examine their position on the issue of work. © 1996, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.