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Translating Policy: Power and Action in Australia's Country Towns
Author(s) -
HerbertCheshire Lynda
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
sociologia ruralis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.005
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1467-9523
pISSN - 0038-0199
DOI - 10.1046/j.1467-9523.2003.00255.x
Subject(s) - governmentality , negotiation , power (physics) , sociology , state (computer science) , capitalism , political economy , politics , action (physics) , capital (architecture) , perspective (graphical) , resistance (ecology) , social capital , political science , social science , law , geography , ecology , physics , archaeology , algorithm , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer science , biology
In its present condition, rural Australia is characterised by a discourse of decline that sees country towns and regions as places of demoralisation and despair. From a Foucauldian governmentality perspective, those who live in these spaces are not so much 'powerless' to the demands of urban‐based governments and global capital, as rendered governable according to the socio‐political ambitions of late capitalism. While important insights have been derived from such analyses, it is argued in this paper that excessive attention is often paid to the power of the state with little concern for the various ways in which local people engage with, and transform the strategies and effects of state power. Rather than utilising the concept of resistance to make sense of these interactions, a sociology of translation is adopted from the Actor Network Theory literature. Applied to two case examples, it shows how governmental policies and programmes are frequently the outcome of the interactions and negotiations that take place between all those enrolled in the actor‐network.