Regional areas often possess a characteristic sense of place and purpose dependent on the specifics of their environmental, historical and societal nature. This sense of place and purpose is reflected in the activities and enterprises that occur in these locations, as well as by the collective and shared values and aspirations of those who inhabit these places. We could argue that, in comparison with regional areas, non-regional areas such as metropolitan cities exhibit far more strongly a âpatchworkâ of senses of place and purpose that reflect variations in societal factors, especially socioeconomic status. In any case, the health and wellbeing of our regions are undeniably critical to the health and wellbeing of our society as a whole.
Whilst in times of uncertainty, be they due to climatic, social or economic changes, regional areas are often the first areas that suffer from and exhibit adverse impacts from changes that will subsequently also sweep through other areas. Wider society has much to both learn and benefit from studies aimed at understanding the characteristic vulnerabilities and strengths of their regional areas. By developing a deeper appreciation and understanding of the interdependencies between regional areas and metropolitan areas, for example, it is more likely that policies and practices will be developed and established for the benefit of all.
Research aimed at gaining a better understanding of how our regions function, how the functioning of regions may be enhanced further, and considering what lessons regional research can provide to help address broader societal issues, all need to be strongly encouraged. The use of both transdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary approaches are critical to the success of this research and indeed these approaches are advanced considerably by this important publication.
This book embraces at its core, a framework of co-design in the context of the appreciation of different ways of knowing, and of incorporating different values and perspectives from all stakeholders, and of a continuous search for balance between these dynamic aspects.
There are three themes advanced here: Place and change, Transition
and resilience
, and Challenges for the future.
Chapters in the Place and change theme provide case studies that begin in NSW with a cross-cultural interdisciplinary exploration of how involving ways of knowing and experiencing by the traditional owners of country are and will ever more increasingly be vital in the repair of our degraded landscapes, caused largely by recent and widespread adoption of European land-management practices ill-suited to our Australian landscapes. This case study illustrates how implementation of traditional knowledge will be essential to the healing of both our lands and, in turn, the healing of the landâs people.
The chapters in this theme then move and focus largely on Victoria, especially the Central Highlands and Gippsland. The importance of letting the landscape represent itself in the making of art as distinct from an interpretational landscape art approach is explored. Other chapters explore the significant role of festival networks in creating a sense of community and place, the value of regional arts practice supported by wider communities, and of how the consequences of economic transition in regional areas are often dependent on a very narrow range of economic activitiesâsomething that is of stark difference to that of metropolitan areas and cities supported by highly diversified and inter-connected economies.
Chapters in the Transition
and resilience
theme provide examples of regions undergoing shifts away from European relations to place and explore the importance of specific place-based considerations in determining the pathways and trajectories of the social and economic wellbeing and health of those in our regional and remote areas. Issues addressed here include how to best approach problems of mental health and lifestyle behaviours in both the workers and communities that support our mining industries, especially during the frequent economic downturns that beset most of our resource-based industries.
The growing emergence and empowerment of women in demanding the adoption of sustainable land-use practices in rural landscapes are also examined in this theme. The roles of education, social media and collectives (such as citizen groups) to increase the sense of belonging and place in remote and regional areas via enabling enhanced social connections and collaborations is scrutinised. The utility of using social media (especially Facebook) to assess and explore regional identities is developed in an especially novel way in this theme.
This theme also contains a particularly insightful investigation of the role of employment and leadership in the workplace in creating and maintaining the sense of both belonging and wellbeing in regional areas (in this case the Latrobe Valley) that have been subject to sustained external forces that challenge and threaten to undermine the economic viability of the regional organisations that have long provided much of the employment in that community.
Chapters in the Challenges for the future theme set out exciting directions and opportunities to address the challenges that regional areas are facing currently and will face in the future. Fundamentally, the chapters argue that the development of solutions will require the jettisoning of long-held beliefs that have been found wanting. For example, the first chapter in this theme details how the parlous state of many of our waterways can rent apart the social, economic, as well as environmental fabrics of many of our regional communities. Rehabilitation of these waterways presents a significant opportunity to repair and indeed revitalise these communities: it is an opportunity that cannot be ignored without continued substantial societal cost.
Another critically important contribution to this theme emphasises the fundamental, yet too often over-looked, importance of collaboration with, empowerment of, and truly listening to all of the communityânot only the loud and/or powerful in the communityâfor the development of initiatives and strategies that speak to, and are capable of, leading to meaningful improvements in the health and wellbeing of all in the community.
The need to successfully address empowerment and social issues from diversity and equity considerations is examined in the light of the unique challenges that regional communities face with a view to the opportunities that the employment of successful approaches will provide to the enhancement of the resilience and wellbeing of these communities.
This third theme also addresses successful agricultural approaches that a rural community in the climatically challenged Wimmera Mallee region of Victoria has driven to ensure their continued agriculturally based viability. These approaches have centred around taking a leading role in the development and translation of appropriate and innovative agricultural practices through targeted impactful research.
Finally, this thought-provoking and insightful book provides an important and timely contribution to our understanding of the meaning of âregionalâ in relation to issues of wider significance, with the promise of catalysing new ways of thinking about how we may approach the development of solutions to some of our most pressing regionally based issues.