Building cultural capital in drought adaptation: lessons from discourse analysis

Abstract

As governments and primary industries work to build the climate resilience of Australian agriculture, individual producers are often called upon to implement strategies to become more adaptive in the face of drought. These strategies include infrastructural changes to agricultural businesses, changes to practices, and the adoption of new skills and knowledge. The transition towards greater drought adaptiveness will also demand broader cultural shifts in the way that drought is defined and approached as an issue facing primary producers. This paper presents the results of a discourse analysis conducted as part of social research exploring the cultural barriers to drought preparedness within the Queensland Government's Drought and Climate Adaptation Program (DCAP). Focusing on media and government accounts, the analysis found two different ways of framing drought and its management in Queensland agriculture. The first, which is dominant in media accounts, emphasises the disruptive power of drought, presenting it as a profound difficulty for producers that is managed using endurance, hope and ingenuity. This frame adopts highly evocative discursive strategies oriented towards mobilising community sentiment and support for producers. The second, which is less prominent overall, downplays drought's disruptive power and counters the emotionality of the adversity discourse by presenting drought as a neutral business risk that can be managed using rational planning skills and scientific knowledge. In discussing these two frames, this paper suggests strategies whereby drought adaptation frames might be made more powerful using more meaningful and emotive narratives that showcase it as a vital practice for ensuring agricultural livelihoods and rural futures in a changing climate.

A Rangelands Conundrum – the Division Within and Among Producers and Stakeholders Regarding Climate Change: Addressing the Challenge to Promote and Gain Consensus of Perception

“…The science of climate change is well established and has been well explained during the past three to four decades (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2021; McKeon et al, 1988;Paxton, 2021). There is a strong basis, then, for assisting rangeland producers in implementing both established and new options across all components of their businesses and their business management (Bode et al, 2020).…”

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“…The science of climate change is well established and has been well explained during the past three to four decades (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), McKeon et al, 1988;Paxton, 2021). There is a strong basis, then, for assisting rangeland producers in implementing both established and new options across all components of their businesses and their business management (Bode et al, 2020).…”

Managing drought in Australian rangelands through collaborative research and industry adoption

“…This Special Issue of The Rangeland Journal looks at some of the work achieved in the DCAP projects to date, focusing on the northern Australian grazing industry, and how the goals of improving the resilience of industry and community link to drought policy. The papers range in topics from economics of drought preparedness (Bowen and Chudleigh 2021), social and cultural aspects of drought management (Paxton 2021), to technical papers describing the development of an automated Introduction system for estimating the long-term carrying capacity of a property (Stone et al 2021;, and another on developing historical maps of drought declared areas from limited spatial information (Irvine 2021). McKeon et al (2021) describes the grouping of 131 years of rainfall records in Queensland into periods of relatively wet or dry conditions, as a basis for the popular and engaging 'Queensland's Extended Wet and Dry periods' poster.…”