The Challenges of Achieving Community Self-determination and Capacity Building in a Neo-liberal Political Environment

Abstract

In Australia over the last 30 years, there has been a shift in federal and state government regional development policies and their engagement with regional communities and regional development. Previously, regional development tended to be a paternalistic and highly centralized, whereas current development policy emphasises entrepreneurialism and self-determination. It is evident from research that, while government policies have used the rhetoric of community self-determination, capacity building and regionalism, de-regulation has undermined the funding necessary to make good the claims. Insistence on self-reliance and the cutting of funding in the name of community autonomy deplete community resources and the pillars of social capital. At the same time, the capacity to work co-operatively, to collaborate, and build trust and networks in order to maintain social cohesion and social capital, undermines the principles of neo-liberalism. Neo-liberalism fails to value unpaid work, community bonds, local knowledge and leadership, and there is limited real acknowledgment by government of their value, nor concern for the future of smaller communities which are undermined by neo-liberalism. This paper examines the associated ambiguities of attaining economic efficiency in a global, neo-liberal economic environment, while at the same time sustaining the social capital of non-metropolitan regional communities and the physical environment in the Central Wheatbelt of Western Australia. It reviews case studies where the notion of capacity building has had meaningful outcomes for rural communities and compares them to other examples where the reality has not matched the rhetoric.