Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy

Welcome to Subas Dhakal's Personal Page

My PhD research:

Community Informatics for Enabling Environmental Groups

Commencement of the ‘Landcare’ movement nearly two decades earlier has established community based environmental groups as a vital component of environmental stewardship in Australia. While social capital is considered one of the key factors that contribute to the sustainability of such community based groups, inadequacy in social capital has emerged as one of the prominent challenges. This is where a relatively new discipline called Community Informatics (CI), concerned with the optimal utilization of ICTs in building sustainable communities comes into the picture. CI’s potential in transforming the way community groups a) communicate and exchange information and b) engage community in the decision-making process is often attributed to increase in social capital.

The argument of my proposed research is that ‘application of CI will result in enhanced social capital and thereby contribute to the sustainability of community based environmental groups’.

Contact : S.Dhakal@murdoch.edu.au