Tag: drought

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Learning to be drier: a case study of adult and community learning in the Australian Riverland

Author/s: Mike Brown & Christine Schulz

Edition: Volume 49, Number 3, November 2009

Summary: This article explores the adult and community learning associated with ‘learning to be drier’ in the Riverland region of South Australia. Communities in the Riverland are currently adjusting and making changes to their understandings and practices as part of learning to live with less water. The analysis of adult and community learning derived from this research identified six different forms of learning. These are, learning to produce, learning to be efficient, learning to survive, learning to live with uncertainty, learning to be sustainable and learning to share. These forms of learning do not occur in isolation and separately from each other but to the contrary are occurring simultaneously with and alongside each other. Further, it is argued that the people and communities in the Riverland, through learning to live with the effects of climate change and less water, are at the forefront of learning to be drier.

Keywords: sustainability, climate change, drought, adult and community learning

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 49_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Bearing the risk: Learning to be drier mid-river

Author/s: Barry Golding & Jennifer Angwin

Edition: Volume 49, Number 3, November 2009

Summary: This paper investigates learning related to the phenomena of drying over the past decade in the southern Murray-Darling Basin in Australia, as perceived in a mid-river site within the western Riverina of New South Wales, Australia. The insights from audio-recorded interviews, with a wide range of adults across the water-dependent community, mostly relate to the catchment of the Murrumbidgee River in the Shire of Hay. Our overarching theme is about how people are learning about, understanding and bearing the risks, of what is widely regarded as a prolonged drought. For some, the learning is about how to cope with less water in the Basin, and particularly from the river, as predicted in the climate change literature. Our narrative-based, empirical research registers the felt experience of those located, in situ, as a severe ‘irrigation drought’ extends into 2009. The paper dramatises the many obstacles to learning how to think and act differently, in difficult and rapidly changing ecosocial circumstances.

Keywords: Murray-Darling Basin, drought, risks, climate change

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 49_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.