Australia: Water Futures: Community Change in the Context of Conflict - PhD

Sep 26, 2023 | University of Sydney
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The One Basin Cooperative Research Centre (One Basin CRC) offers attractive PhD packages in a broad range of disciplinary fields and across multiple universities in Australia (Australian National University, Charles Sturt University, Flinders University, The University of Adelaide, The University of Melbourne, The University of Sydney). The PhD graduates will be the future leaders in basin research and application. The One Basin PhD program provides unprecedented leadership development opportunities, extensive industry networking, and the chance to establish a deep understanding of a scholar’s chosen field. Key features of the One Basin CRC PhD Program are:

• A 3.5 year scholarship with the option of a 6 month-funded internship with an industry partner or equivalent part- time employment.
• A flexible funding package including a stipend as much as $51,300 pa* and generous travel and operational costs, with potential additional income from working part-time with industry partners and further scholarship funding.
• The PhD program seeks to achieve gender balance and attract candidates from all walks of life, with Australians of Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander heritage particularly encouraged to apply.
• Opportunities for travel (including the possibility of international conferences), development and engagement with a strong research network that is being developed through the 10-year CRC.
• Each candidate will spend the majority of their time in one of the following research hubs: Loxton (South Australia), Mildura (Victoria), Griffith (NSW) and Goondiwindi (Queensland) with associated node in Narrabri (NSW).

Description of the topic of PhD project:

The aim of this project is to explore how conflict arising from divergent views on water use in communities within the Murray Darling Basin can be transformed to support adaption. This project will contribute to community development scholarship on community conflict, adaption and transformation both nationally and internationally. The issue of community level conflict is poorly explored in community development literature and education, often seen as an impediment to community-led change. Commonly the starting point for community change is assumed to be shared values and common purpose. This project asks, what happens when these are absent? What processes support the transformation of conflict to pro-social action and collective efficacy?

The proposed Water Futures project is well suited to exploration of these questions. Firstly, existing research has highlighted that communities living within the Murray Darling Basin hold divergent views on water usage and face divergent futures due to changing water access (see the Sefton Report, 2020). Secondly, rural settings provide strong narratives about ‘community life’ that continue to be idealised and romanticised. Rural communities are cast as an idyllic place to live (often in juxtaposition with urban environments) due to neighbourliness and harmony (Rogers, Castree & Kitchin, 2013). Pragmatically they also provide discrete units of study of ‘communities’.

It is proposed that the student will collect data across the four proposed Water Futures sites. Data will be collected via interviews, ethnographic observations and documentary reviews.

Primary university supervisor(s): Associate Professor Margot Rawsthorne or Professor Amanda Howard (The University of Sydney)

Co-supervisors: Professor Wendy Meritt (Australian National University)

Requisite qualifications and experience:

Candidates with Masters or honours degrees in the following disciplines, or with equivalent research or work experience will be favourably considered: social sciences including human geography, social policy, social work, or community development.

To determine candidate eligibility for studying at The University of Sydney see:

https://www.sydney.edu.au/study/how-to-apply/postgraduate-research.html

1BCRC industry partner(s) potentially involved:

RDA Murraylands and Riverlands

The PhD program will give the selected candidate the professional skills and networks to accelerate their career in research or practice across the water, agriculture or environmental sectors.

*This is dependent on the host university policies, other available co-funding, and candidature experience and background. Candidates will receive a minimum stipend of $35,000 pa and a further minimum $20,500 (total) in operational funding. The exact allocation of the funding package between the stipend and support activities (such as conferences, travel to and from regional hubs) will be agreed to by the host university, PhD student and the 1BCRC. Applicants must be intending to apply for, and be highly competitive for, a Research Training Program (RTP) Stipend (or an equivalent scholarship). The student will enter the PhD program in 2024 and enrol on a full-time basis.