26 September 2017, 12:30-1:30 pm.
GeoPlan Seminar Series 2017, W3A 501, Macquarie University, Sydney.
Dr Daniel Rothenberg
Salinity, both in irrigated and dryland agriculture has been an significance in Victoria for many decades. However, the role of civil society and local efforts to overcome or mitigate these environmental problems has rarely been examined. In this seminar, Daniel Rothenburg will elaborate on the work of local salinity action groups to resolve the effects of salinity on Victoria’s rural communities, focusing on the 1970s.
These organizations viewed salinity as a symptom of abusive and unsustainable land use, caused by lack of knowledge and a logic of exploitation. They directed their efforts in two directions, towards the state and towards the community. They attempted to persuade local, state and federal representatives that salinity was a pressing issue, and produced materials to educate farmers, citizens, teachers and students about the causes and signs of salinity and possible remedies. Notably, they strived to promote a different environmental consciousness among their their fellow citizens and a different view of and relationship to the Australian landscape.
Daniel will outline both directions of their work, assess their strategies and key ideas and connect those to global trends in ecological thinking and contemporary environment movements during the “Ecological Revolution” around 1970.
Daniel Rothenburg is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Tübingen. He is interested in the interrelations of environmental change with social transformations, ecological ideas and everyday practices. His research focus is farming communities in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia in the 20th and 21st century and their salinity problems. Especially, he takes a close look at the role of civil society in environmental issues and the connectedness of local, regional, national and global issues, ideas and trends.
https://www.uni-tuebingen.de/en/research/core-research/collaborative-research-centers/sfb-923/staff/doctoral-postdoctoral-researchers/daniel-rothenburg.html
Image: AG, salt-affected landscape.
