Dora Marinova and Silvia Lozeva

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Extracting a Better Future for Leonora

• Dora Marinova and Silvia Lozeva
• Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP)
  Institute

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Sustainability

• The sustainability concept has reframed the way
  we think about the world (Hartz-Karp and Newman,
  2006)
• Meeting the needs of current and future
  generations through an integration of
  environmental protection, social advancement and
  economic prosperity (WA Sustainability Strategy,
  2003)
• The characteristic of being able to coexist with
  another system indefinitely, without either
  system being damaged (http//library.thinkquest.
  org/22403/data/medium/other/glossary.html)

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• Sustainable development comprises types of
  economic and social development that protect and
  enhance the natural environment and social
  equity (Dunphy et al., 2000 23)
• A framework of principles, a philosophy of
  practice that engages multi-levels, places,
  cultures and actors in a systematic approach
  towards better environmental and social health
  whilst simultaneously allowing the economic
  improvement that this may require. Sustainability
  emphasises the importance of the local, of
  knowledge and action, but relates this to a
  broader global perspective in which
  interrelationships are recognised (McGrath and
  Marinova, 2004)

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Sustainability journey

Environmental protection and improvement
Economic development
Ecological economics
SUSTAINABILITY
Sense of place
Community health
Social development
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Sustainability and people

• all history as well as current experience
  points to the fact that it is man, not nature,
  who provides the primary resource that the key
  factor of all economic development comes out of
  the mind of man (Schumacher, Small is
  Beautiful, 1974, p.64)

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Leonora

Tourists
FIFO
Tourists
Settlers
Aboriginalcommunity
Public servants
Tourists
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Economic development

• A mining town
• Pastoralism
• Tourism
• Regional centre
• school
• hospital
• library
• airport

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• The mining community needs to develop the human
  resources potential which is already here.
• Three mining camps not much mixing with
  communities
• All high-skilled people are spread very thin.
• I dont have more kids with the mining industry.
  The only benefit I have is monetary.
• The good kids will miss out. They are not pushed
  to better standards outside of Leonora. Next step
  after school should be traineeship, and if that
  is not secured, than what future do the kids
  have?
• Not much wealth kept here.

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Social development

• Human capital
• Social capital
• HIV/AIDS

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• Where are they? You never see them! When they
  fly out they probably even bring back the
  toothpaste with them.
• If the mine closes governmental services are
  still going to exist. There are still going to be
  gardening and horse riding and great climate to
  enjoy I feel part of the town.
• Primary School is quite good here. I am glad
  they his two children have the opportunity to
  study here, where they can develop their
  potential. It also helps us as parents, being
  able to observe and encourage their progress. I
  think that this would not be possible in a big
  school, like in Perth for example.

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• Nearly 70 per cent of all children are from
  Indigenous population. The Aboriginal kids are
  behind from the start due to their lack of
  enrolment in pre-school and poor development from
  an early age. That's why we try to play
  interactive games and try to get them involved in
  as many activities as possible.
• Picture theatre used to be important, the miners
  used to come here.
• 16-20 year-old  lost soul generation

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Number of students enrolled in Leonora District
High School, 2008
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• Other communities in remote areas have everything
  set up for them before they move in. White
  contractors move in and build every thing and
  then move out, Aboriginals are then left to
  themselves with no knowledge of what to do if
  anything goes wrong, and with no idea of how to
  do any repairs or maintenance to the homes. This
  is what happens when our people have their
  lifestyle stolen away from them, when the
  reserves are sold to mining companies and mining
  companies take over pastoral properties and the
  Aboriginal stockmen are left with no employment,
  so they finish up on the outskirts of the towns
  and they cannot adapt to European way of living.
  When I look at all the other communities, and
  read of all the dollars that have been wasted I
  realise how far ahead of every one else I am.
• These are my plans for Corringie Settlement to
  build this place up so my children can live here
  free from the mad viscous circle of drink and
  drugs in the city (1999) http//www.wilja.asn.au/
  postscri.htm

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Environmental protection

• Value of minerals and petroleum
• Leonora 2,747,991,805
• (DoIR, 2007)
• Surrounded by pastoral holdings
• Oil dependent
• Commodity prices

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• PV should be everywhere
• Climate here is better than in Perth
• You feel part of town Leonora is always going to
  be here this is the best town to live in this
  area
• I have my own wood, meat, veggies, cost of living
  is cheaper, cash jobs everywhere
• We have a desalination plant to get rid of the
  chemicals from the soil
• There are too many kangaroos nowadays because
  there is water everywhere

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• On weekends and holidays we always make sure we
  go bush to relax and enjoy our way of living and
  to teach our young people our ways to survive in
  the bush and our laws and culture, which has been
  handed down to us from our elders who have gone
  before us (1999)
• http//www.wilja.asn.au/postscri.htm

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Complexity

• Sustainability is about complex systems (eg
  desert settlements)
• Co-existence
• Integration
• Development/evolution
• Knowledge
• Do these complex systems have the capacity to
  learn and adapt to survive in the future?
• The argument of this paper is that co-evolution,
  through cooperation and knowledge generation, is
  the process which will make a desert settlement
  adapt and become sustainable

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Segregation and complex systems

• Shellings tipping model (1978) mild
  preferences of individuals to be with like others
  can result in highly segregated social systems
• Nested systems/societies
• Eriksen (2007) anthropologically complex
  societies and the matrix of socially/culturally
  open/closed societies, acknowledge
• the existence of ethnic, religious or other
  culturally-distinctive communities and their
  relevance for people who belong to them (or
  refuse to do so)
• that cultural and social dynamics are independent
  of each other
• that all voices need to be heard by all

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Societalisation

• This is a process with a tendency for social
  systems to be brought into alignment, including
  social relations associated with gender,
  ethnicity, culture, class and nation (Walby,
  2007)
• It describes the emergence of new discourses and
  practices in governance negotiated
  decision-making, communicative governance,
  co-operative management, interactive governance
  (Leroy, 2003)
• It is a different way of thinking of the changing
  relevance of space
• It is particularly relevant to thinking about the
  long-term future of a desert settlement

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Participatory democracy

• Creating a bottom-up approach to Leonoras
  sustainability
• Can help establish simpler, more powerful
  meanings that tap into our common language and
  that empower us to take effective action to
  actually achieve the sustainability of the things
  we depend on and the things we love (Sutton,
  2004 8)
• Connecting and linking people is a major
  knowledge management activity which allows
  stories to be shared and innovation to occur
  (Snowden, 2002)

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Co-evolution

• Rather than a simple hierarchical or nested
  relationship, complex adaptive systems co-evolve,
  mutually adapting during the process (Walby,
  2007 463)
• Co-evolution allows for new knowledge to emerge
  that can support a more sustainable future

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Adaptive complex systems

• This organisational form, and the behaviour
  that structures it, leads to the emergence of a
  collective intelligence that in turn drives
  forward the same processes in feedback loops
  leading to a substantial increases in agency and
  potential (Chesters, 2004 11)
• Emergence refers to macro outcomes produced
  by reflexive actors engaged in complex
  patterns of interaction and exchange, which are
  unexpected but are historically determinate
  and unknowable in advance.
• The feedback loops allow for strength,
  durability, and interconnectivity to be built and
  reaffirms the praxis that facilitates the
  emergent properties.
• Increases in agency and potential come from
  increased reflexivity by all individuals, groups
  and organisations.

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Leonora

Government regulations infrastructure
Market goods services
SUSTAINABLE DESERT SETTLEMENT
Community values visions
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• What is unique about Leonora is that it is a
  T-junction, a lot of tourists come here
• Leonora was kept by mining, small contractors,
  labs with unskilled labour, mining is always
  going to be here. It is a fuel stop, has a
  caravan park, it is diverse depends on
  different things. People move out, then move
  back
• We have enthusiastic teachers lets do it, have
  a go, courageous, love science
• We have to do things ourselves, independently,
  stand out, bite your tongue. We have to be
  confident Break preconceived ideas

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Conclusion

• Leonora is a very diverse/heterogeneous desert
  settlement mining, pastoralists, Aboriginals,
  tourists, services
• A process of societalisation can enable
  co-evolution of knowledge and adaptation
• Participatory democracy can facilitate such a
  process, shape sustainability aspirations and
  allow for dialogue and deliberation on the towns
  future

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• The authors want to acknowledge Cooperative
  Research Centre Desert Knowledge for helping fund
  this research.