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Reforms to Rural Research and Development Viewed in a New Light: the Importance of the Individual
Author(s) -
Lovett Siwan
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8500.1997.tb01548.x
Subject(s) - order (exchange) , period (music) , rural area , rural sector , process (computing) , sociology , personality psychology , political science , economic growth , law , economics , social psychology , psychology , aesthetics , computer science , philosophy , finance , personality , operating system
The reforms accomplished in the rural research and development (R&D) sector throughout the 1980s and 1990s revolutionised the conduct of scientific inquiry in Australia. Surveys of these reforms have viewed the accomplishment of this change as an evolutionary, smooth and uncontroversial process (see Lovett 1993; 1994). However, it is not until the developments prior to 1985 are examined that the apparent ease and seamlessness of the reforms become challenged. It is now clear that rather than being a planned and ordered process, the changes made to rural (R&D) were sporadic and dependent upon specific personalities who happened to be in ‘the right place at the right time’. This article exposes this Contrary account in order to highlight the true nature of the changes made to the area. In so doing it challenges previous accounts of the period and provides a basis from which to understand the transformation of the rural (R&D) sector in Australia.