Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy

Welcome to Sally Paulin's Personal Page

My PhD research:

Who is going to do the work? How community involvement in natural resource management is affected by government funding mechanisms

The policy structures surrounding community participation in natural resource management (NRM) in Australia have undergone several metamorphoses over the past few years ranging from the ad hoc funding approach of NHT1 and state based measures which funded environmental regeneration programmes for particular areas of interest and provided paid coordinators for some urban community based environmental groups, to, more recently, NHT2, which has changed the funding emphasis to one of regionalization and large scale integrated catchment management programs which do not appear to include support for community environmental groups.

Using a case study of an urban catchment group and friends groups in the Swan Region in Western Australia, I will discuss the structural and organizational changes resulting from regionalization and NHT2, in particular, which have removed dedicated expert support from community based catchment groups and, in some cases, substantially altered the role community based groups can play in NRM.

Publications :

Paulin, S. 2002. “Why Salt? Harry Whittington and WISALTS: Community Science in Action”. Indian Ocean Books: Perth.

Paulin, S. Ed. 2006. Community Voices: Creating Sustainable Spaces. UWA Press: Perth.

Interests

I have an ongoing interest in the salinity debate and the importance of acknowledging lay and local knowledge when looking for solutions to complex problems.

I have had extensive practical experience in the day to day experience of community groups both in the city and the bush and am also interested in researching volunteering and encouraging active community engagement.

Hobbies:

Dreaming about finishing my PhD!

 

Contact : S.Paulin@murdoch.edu.au