Search

The 'Big Dry', a prolonged dry period in Australia from 1997 to 2009, seared much of the Murray-Darling Basin region and resulted in large agricultural losses, degraded river systems and increased uncertainty in rural communities although climate change in the form of drought is not new to rural Australia (Wei et al . 2012). For many years, generations of Australian farmers and farming communities have battled such climatic extremes. However, the most recent drought event competed with a myriad of changes to their lives and as such, the façade of stoicism has slowly begun to crack. This chapter examines the changes exacerbated by drought occurring in rural Victoria and considers the challenges facing both rural towns and farming families, whose economic future and social well-being are predominantly associated with agriculture. By drawing on locally situated knowledge from case studies of the rural towns of Mildura and Donald, this chapter shows how issues such as reduced water supply, increasing agricultural costs, farm succession and cumulative uncertainty are affecting the ongoing viability of people living off the land in these drought-affected rural areas. Like many other rural towns in Australia where agriculture is a mainstay, Mildura and Donald are experiencing a combination of strains on their communities, townships, farms, and farming families. These pressures arise not only from drought but also from extensive changes to local communities and farming enterprises that include: a rapidly evolving water market, the increasing competition of commodity markets, wide-ranging rural demographic shifts, and changing rural service provision and investment. Drought and the effects of longterm drying of these agricultural regions represent just one challenge amongst a melee of change. In the oft-repeated words of residents from these rural communities, the problems they are confronting are 'not just drought', they are a combination of 'drought and more' which make su

The National Climate Change Research Facility (NCCARF) is undertaking a program of Synthesis and Integrative Research to synthesise existing and emerging national and international research on climate change impacts and adaptation. The purpose of this program is to provide decision-makers with the information they need to manage the risks of climate change. This report on drought and the future of rural communities in regional Victoria forms part of a series of studies/reports commissioned by NCCARF that look at historical extreme weather events, their impacts and subsequent adaptations. These studies examine particular events - primarily extremes - and seek to explore prior vulnerabilities and resilience, the character and management of the event, subsequent adaptation and the effects on present-day vulnerability. The reports should inform thinking about adapting to climate change - that is, capacity to adapt, barriers to adaptation, and translating capacity into action. While it is recognised that the comparison is not, and never can be, exact, the over-arching goal is to better understand the requirements of successful adaptation to future climate change. This report compares the impact of drought in two agricultural communities, Mildura and Donald. The Big Dry, or Millennium Drought, has affected southeast Australia since the mid-1990s. Although there has been a return to wet La Niña conditions, it will be several seasons before conditions will return to 'normal'. This drought had serious impacts on water availability, agricultural production (due to decreased irrigation allocations), biodiversity (due to prolonged changes in habitats) and bushfire regimes. Two case studies (Mildura and Donald) were chosen to investigate the socio-economic impacts of drought, past and present drought adaptation measures, and the future adaptation strategies that will be required to deal with projected increases to the frequency and magnitude of drought events.

This study takes one aspect of the post-conflict peace-building process in Bosnia- Herzegovina since 1995 - the recognition of three official but mutually comprehensible languages - and examines the way in which the international community's approach to it has impacted on broader peacebuilding goals for the country. The originality of this thesis lies in the fact that it views post-conflict peace-building in Bosnia-Herzegovina through the lens of the language issue. Taking the Dayton Peace Agreement (1995) as the starting point I look at the way in which its provisions have largely dictated the international community's approach to the language issue and created the political environment in which language operates. Further, applying the concept of societal security I explain how the language issue is used by domestic elites to frustrate attempts at reconciliation by the international community; I argue that the international community's approach, based on the equality of the three languages, only feeds into the divisive ethnic politics of present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina and ultimately undermines the security and stability of the country. I also look in detail at two very different but complimentary areas of ongoing post- conflict reform in Bosnia-Herzegovina and analyse the international community's approach to language in each: reform of the education system and defence reform. In the former the language issue cannot be divorced from the identity-formation goals of domestic elites in the education reform. The international community's approach to language in this regard has been counterproductive and has only bolstered attempts to maintain segregation in schools. In the area of defence reform the focus of language policy is not on issues of identity but on the translation and interpretation policy of the international military force which is guided by locally-hired interpreters and translators. I use narrative theory (Baker, 2006) to explain how they negotiate issue

This study takes one aspect of the post-conflict peace-building process in Bosnia- Herzegovina since 1995 - the recognition of three official but mutually comprehensible languages - and examines the way in which the international community's approach to it has impacted on broader peacebuilding goals for the country. The originality of this thesis lies in the fact that it views post-conflict peace-building in Bosnia-Herzegovina through the lens of the language issue. Taking the Dayton Peace Agreement (1995) as the starting point I look at the way in which its provisions have largely dictated the international community's approach to the language issue and created the political environment in which language operates. Further, applying the concept of societal security I explain how the language issue is used by domestic elites to frustrate attempts at reconciliation by the international community; I argue that the international community's approach, based on the equality of the three languages, only feeds into the divisive ethnic politics of present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina and ultimately undermines the security and stability of the country. I also look in detail at two very different but complimentary areas of ongoing post- conflict reform in Bosnia-Herzegovina and analyse the international community's approach to language in each: reform of the education system and defence reform. In the former the language issue cannot be divorced from the identity-formation goals of domestic elites in the education reform. The international community's approach to language in this regard has been counterproductive and has only bolstered attempts to maintain segregation in schools. In the area of defence reform the focus of language policy is not on issues of identity but on the translation and interpretation policy of the international military force which is guided by locally-hired interpreters and translators. I use narrative theory (Baker, 2006) to explain how they negotiate issue

This study takes one aspect of the post-conflict peace-building process in Bosnia- Herzegovina since 1995 - the recognition of three official but mutually comprehensible languages - and examines the way in which the international community's approach to it has impacted on broader peacebuilding goals for the country. The originality of this thesis lies in the fact that it views post-conflict peace-building in Bosnia-Herzegovina through the lens of the language issue. Taking the Dayton Peace Agreement (1995) as the starting point I look at the way in which its provisions have largely dictated the international community's approach to the language issue and created the political environment in which language operates. Further, applying the concept of societal security I explain how the language issue is used by domestic elites to frustrate attempts at reconciliation by the international community; I argue that the international community's approach, based on the equality of the three languages, only feeds into the divisive ethnic politics of present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina and ultimately undermines the security and stability of the country. I also look in detail at two very different but complimentary areas of ongoing post- conflict reform in Bosnia-Herzegovina and analyse the international community's approach to language in each: reform of the education system and defence reform. In the former the language issue cannot be divorced from the identity-formation goals of domestic elites in the education reform. The international community's approach to language in this regard has been counterproductive and has only bolstered attempts to maintain segregation in schools. In the area of defence reform the focus of language policy is not on issues of identity but on the translation and interpretation policy of the international military force which is guided by locally-hired interpreters and translators. I use narrative theory (Baker, 2006) to explain how they negotiate issue

This study takes one aspect of the post-conflict peace-building process in Bosnia- Herzegovina since 1995 - the recognition of three official but mutually comprehensible languages - and examines the way in which the international community's approach to it has impacted on broader peacebuilding goals for the country. The originality of this thesis lies in the fact that it views post-conflict peace-building in Bosnia-Herzegovina through the lens of the language issue. Taking the Dayton Peace Agreement (1995) as the starting point I look at the way in which its provisions have largely dictated the international community's approach to the language issue and created the political environment in which language operates. Further, applying the concept of societal security I explain how the language issue is used by domestic elites to frustrate attempts at reconciliation by the international community; I argue that the international community's approach, based on the equality of the three languages, only feeds into the divisive ethnic politics of present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina and ultimately undermines the security and stability of the country. I also look in detail at two very different but complimentary areas of ongoing post- conflict reform in Bosnia-Herzegovina and analyse the international community's approach to language in each: reform of the education system and defence reform. In the former the language issue cannot be divorced from the identity-formation goals of domestic elites in the education reform. The international community's approach to language in this regard has been counterproductive and has only bolstered attempts to maintain segregation in schools. In the area of defence reform the focus of language policy is not on issues of identity but on the translation and interpretation policy of the international military force which is guided by locally-hired interpreters and translators. I use narrative theory (Baker, 2006) to explain how they negotiate issue

This study takes one aspect of the post-conflict peace-building process in Bosnia- Herzegovina since 1995 - the recognition of three official but mutually comprehensible languages - and examines the way in which the international community's approach to it has impacted on broader peacebuilding goals for the country. The originality of this thesis lies in the fact that it views post-conflict peace-building in Bosnia-Herzegovina through the lens of the language issue. Taking the Dayton Peace Agreement (1995) as the starting point I look at the way in which its provisions have largely dictated the international community's approach to the language issue and created the political environment in which language operates. Further, applying the concept of societal security I explain how the language issue is used by domestic elites to frustrate attempts at reconciliation by the international community; I argue that the international community's approach, based on the equality of the three languages, only feeds into the divisive ethnic politics of present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina and ultimately undermines the security and stability of the country. I also look in detail at two very different but complimentary areas of ongoing post- conflict reform in Bosnia-Herzegovina and analyse the international community's approach to language in each: reform of the education system and defence reform. In the former the language issue cannot be divorced from the identity-formation goals of domestic elites in the education reform. The international community's approach to language in this regard has been counterproductive and has only bolstered attempts to maintain segregation in schools. In the area of defence reform the focus of language policy is not on issues of identity but on the translation and interpretation policy of the international military force which is guided by locally-hired interpreters and translators. I use narrative theory (Baker, 2006) to explain how they negotiate issue