At the Intersection of Science and Politics: Defining Exceptional Drought

White, David; Botterill, Linda Courtenay; O'Meagher, Bruce

doi:10.1007/1-4020-3124-6_8

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…48 As a result, the NDP was agreed upon by the Commonwealth and State governments against a political background of "deep-rooted sympathy for the plight of farmers". 49 This public sympathy for farmers is illustrated by the 1994 Farm Hand Appeal, which raised over $20 million from public donations, with the Commonwealth government, ultimately, matching this public generosity dollar for dollar. 50 This public generosity was influenced by superficial media reporting that showed emotive images of dying livestock and dry paddocks.…”

Section: The 1992 Ndpmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Polanyian Perspective on the Conflict Between Neoliberal Economics and Countrymindedness in Australian Drought and Water Policy

Robertson

Habib

2023

Aus J of Politics History

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This article evaluates the successes and failures of Australian drought and water policy reforms. By analysing the influence of the ideas central to neoliberal economics and countrymindedness on the development and implementation of the National Drought Policy and the Murray Darling Basin Plan, we illustrate that drought and water policy reforms in Australia can be explained in the context of Karl Polanyi's double movement theory. We demonstrate that founding Australia's agricultural policy on economic assumptions is unlikely to be well‐received in a nation that exhibits widespread sympathy for the plight of agricultural producers. As such, we postulate that neoliberal agricultural policies that ignore the relevant social and historical context will be unpopular and vulnerable to a countermovement that undermines the intent and hinders the implementation of the policy.

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Section: The 1992 Ndpmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Polanyian Perspective on the Conflict Between Neoliberal Economics and Countrymindedness in Australian Drought and Water Policy

Robertson

Habib

2023

Aus J of Politics History

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Revenue volatility faced by Australian wheat farmers

Kingwell¹

2011

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Actionable climate knowledge: from analysis to synthesis

Meinke¹,

Nelson²,

Kokic³

et al. 2006

Clim. Res.

204

127

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The traditional reductionist approach to science has a tendency to create 'islands of knowledge in a sea of ignorance', with a much stronger focus on analysis of scientific inputs rather than synthesis of socially relevant outcomes. This might be the principal reason why intended end users of climate information generally fail to embrace what the climate science community has to offer. The translation of climate information into real-life action requires 3 essential components: salience (the perceived relevance of the information), credibility (the perceived technical quality of the information) and legitimacy (the perceived objectivity of the process by which the information is shared). We explore each of these components using 3 case studies focused on dryland cropping in Australia, India and Brazil. In regards to 'salience' we discuss the challenge for climate science to be 'policy-relevant', using Australian drought policy as an example. In a village in southern India 'credibility' was gained through engagement between scientists and risk managers with the aim of building social capital, achieved only at high cost to science institutions. Finally, in Brazil we found that 'legitimacy' is a fragile, yet renewable resource that needs to be part of the package for successful climate applications; legitimacy can be easily eroded but is difficult to recover. We conclude that climate risk management requires holistic solutions derived from cross-disciplinary and participatory, user-oriented research. Approaches that combine climate, agroecological and socioeconomic models provide the scientific capabilities for establishment of 'borderless' institutions without disciplinary constraints. Such institutions could provide the necessary support and flexibility to deliver the social benefits of climate science across diverse contexts. Our case studies show that this type of solution is already being applied, and suggest that the climate science community attempt to address existing institutional constraints, which still impede climate risk management.

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At the Intersection of Science and Politics: Defining Exceptional Drought

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

A Polanyian Perspective on the Conflict Between Neoliberal Economics and Countrymindedness in Australian Drought and Water Policy

A Polanyian Perspective on the Conflict Between Neoliberal Economics and Countrymindedness in Australian Drought and Water Policy

Revenue volatility faced by Australian wheat farmers

Actionable climate knowledge: from analysis to synthesis

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