Challenging assumptions to achieve vibrant rural communities

Professor Margaret Alston from Monash University will challenge the assumptions that rural communities will down-scale in efficient ways to make way for new environmental realities such as water scarcity or climate change.

In an Australian Academy of Science public lecture entitled Rural policy, people and place: sustainability in an uncertain future, Professor Alston will examine the changes and uncertainties due to climate change, environment, telecommunications, health and education that are shaping Australia’s rural spaces.

She will argue for greater attention to the social aspects of rural life, suggesting ways to achieve vibrant, well-serviced and supported rural people and places.

Professor Alston has published widely on rural social issues, currently researching the gendered impacts of climate change in Australia, the Pacific, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

Today’s lecture is the penultimate in the Academy’s 2012 public lecture series on Caring for the Australian countryside: lessons from the past and present.

Media are welcome to attend and record the lecture.