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"The Remaking of Rural Australia" 

Presented by Prof. Tony Sorensen.

Venue: 4 pm, August 20th, NIRSA Conference Room, 3rd Floor, John Hume Building, NUI Maynooth.

Tony Sorensen is Adjunct Professor at the School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Science, University of New England, Armidale, Australia where he is also the Deputy Director of the Centre for Applied Research in Social Science. His main research interests are in the area of non-metropolitan regional development in Australia, including regional development processes, spatial wellbeing and regional governance structures. Current research projects include; Change and Adjustment in Australia’s Agricultural Heartland (funded by the Australian Research Council), Community Resilience (funded by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation) and Innovative Regional Businesses and Options for Economic Growth in Cotton Communities (funded by the Cotton Cooperative Research Centre)

Abstract

The presentation initially outlines rural Australia’s current economic geography, emphasising its enormous diversity, relative prosperity, resilience and dynamism. The presentation then reviews a range of threats and opportunities which are likely to impact on this geography, including global financial turmoil; massive shifts in global production and trade; the rapid rise in East Asia’s wealth; mass movements of refugees; the emergence of new, and the reweighting of existing, resources; galloping technological chang;, and concerns about environmental futures. These forces are likely to reshape rural Australia’s production systems, lifestyles, and roles relative to the nation’s metropolitan cores. The possible spatial outcomes of the interplay of these forces will then be discussed. Some regions - especially tropical Australia, mineral and energy provinces, lifestyle locations and the agricultural heartland - seem primed for success while others – especially remoter regions which are often the home to Aboriginal peoples - may well struggle.