TY - JOUR
T1 - Identifying and measuring agrarian sentiment in regional Australia
AU - BERRY, Helen
AU - BOTTERILL, Linda
AU - Cockfield, Geoff
AU - DING, Ning
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - In common with much of the Western world,
agrarianism¿valuing farmers and agricultural activity as
intrinsically worthwhile, noble, and contributing to the
strength of the national character¿runs through Australian
culture and politics. Agrarian sentiments and attitudes have
been identified through empirical research and by inference
from analysis of political debate, policy content, and
studies of media and popular culture. Empirical studies
have, however, been largely confined to the US, with little
in the way of recent re-evaluations of, or developments
from, early work. This paper reports on research that seeks
quantitative empirical evidence for the existence of agrarianism
in the Australian community and seeks to identify
its core characteristics. Using a purpose-designed sub-set
of items within a large, omnibus-style survey of regional
and rural Australia, we demonstrate that agrarianism exists
as a scientifically quantifiable concept identifiable through
responses to four key propositions: that Australians should
support policies aimed at improving the position of the
agricultural industries; that working in agriculture and
associated industries brings out the best in people; that
agricultural producers make a major contribution to environmental
protection and biodiversity conservation; and
that the development of agriculture in Australia contributed
to the development of the national character. We found
very little variation in the degree to which different
demographic groupings agree with agrarianism. Older
people, farmers, and non-Indigenous Australian-born
respondents were among those who were statistically significantly
more likely to agree with the defining propositions
of agrarianism, but their scores were only very
slightly higher than those of other sub-populations in the
sample.
AB - In common with much of the Western world,
agrarianism¿valuing farmers and agricultural activity as
intrinsically worthwhile, noble, and contributing to the
strength of the national character¿runs through Australian
culture and politics. Agrarian sentiments and attitudes have
been identified through empirical research and by inference
from analysis of political debate, policy content, and
studies of media and popular culture. Empirical studies
have, however, been largely confined to the US, with little
in the way of recent re-evaluations of, or developments
from, early work. This paper reports on research that seeks
quantitative empirical evidence for the existence of agrarianism
in the Australian community and seeks to identify
its core characteristics. Using a purpose-designed sub-set
of items within a large, omnibus-style survey of regional
and rural Australia, we demonstrate that agrarianism exists
as a scientifically quantifiable concept identifiable through
responses to four key propositions: that Australians should
support policies aimed at improving the position of the
agricultural industries; that working in agriculture and
associated industries brings out the best in people; that
agricultural producers make a major contribution to environmental
protection and biodiversity conservation; and
that the development of agriculture in Australia contributed
to the development of the national character. We found
very little variation in the degree to which different
demographic groupings agree with agrarianism. Older
people, farmers, and non-Indigenous Australian-born
respondents were among those who were statistically significantly
more likely to agree with the defining propositions
of agrarianism, but their scores were only very
slightly higher than those of other sub-populations in the
sample.
KW - Agrarianism
KW - Australia
KW - Agrarian index
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP140100311
U2 - 10.1007/s10460-016-9684-5
DO - 10.1007/s10460-016-9684-5
M3 - Article
SN - 0889-048X
VL - 33
SP - 929
EP - 941
JO - Agriculture and Human Values
JF - Agriculture and Human Values
IS - 4
ER -