Researching Sustainability: Material Semiotics and the Oil Mallee Project

Transcription

1 Researching Sustainability: Material Semiotics and the Oil Mallee Project Sarah Bell BSc BE(hons) MEnvMgt Thesis submitted for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy Murdoch University 2003

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3 I declare that this thesis is my own account of my research and contains, as its main content, work that has not been submitted for a degree at any tertiary education institution... Sarah Jayne Bell

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5 Abstract Sustainability responds to crises of ecology and human development and the relationships between them. Sustainability cannot be adequately described using disciplinary categories arising from the modern dichotomy between nature and culture. Sustainability research requires a methodology that reflects the reality of its subject. This thesis presents material semiotics as a methodology for sustainability research. Material semiotics refers to the work of actor-network theorists and latter developments of alternate spatial metaphors for material relationality. Actor-network theory is a methodology that describes human and non-human actors in the same terms. It follows actor through networks of material relationships that they constitute and are constituted by, depicting heterogeneous objects without recourse to prior categories of nature or culture. The description of material relationships in fluid and regional, as well as network, spaces expands the descriptive power of material semiotics to include Others and to better represent complexity. The Oil Mallee Project is a case study of sustainability in the Western Australian wheatbelt. Indigenous eucalypts, oil mallees, are planted on land that was cleared for agriculture. The above ground biomass can be processed for eucalyptus oil, electricity and activated carbon, and the rights to carbon stored in the extensive mallee roots, or in unharvested trees, can be sold. The Project responds to a number of sustainability issues, including ozone depletion, land degradation, climate change and rural decline. This thesis follows the actors that comprise the Oil Mallee Project to describe its complexity, multiplicity and sustainability. Qualitative interviews with v

6 actors in the Project and the wheatbelt provided the primary data, which is supported by documentary material. Three contingent phases can be identified in the history of the Oil Mallee Project eucalyptus oil industry, dryland salinity management, and greenhouse response. The Project has persisted because it is simultaneously a regional, network and fluid object. Mallees grow well in the tough conditions of the wheatbelt. Mallees can be integrated with existing networks of industrial agriculture. The Project has achieved contingent stability in policy documents and the networks of scientific research. The fluidity of the Project has enabled it to change shape and identity in response to threats and opportunities, and as relationships break and form, without complete disruption. Specific humans have been central heroes in different phases of the Project. The mallees themselves are the only actors that have been consistently central to the identity of the Project. Sustainability requires knowledge of the relationships between humans and nonhumans that constitute the multiple crises of ecology and human development. Sustainability is the re-ordering of those relationships in ways that make possible ecological integrity and human fulfilment. Material semiotics is a methodology for knowing sustainability in ways that reveal the possibilities for such re-orderings. vi

7 Table of Contents ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V IX INTRODUCTION 1 SUSTAINABILITY...6 METHODOLOGY...10 THE OIL MALLEE PROJECT...17 THESIS OUTLINE SUSTAINABILITY 27 ECOLOGICAL CRISIS...30 SUSTAINABILITY...38 SUSTAINABILITY RESEARCH...51 THE OIL MALLEE PROJECT METHODOLOGY 55 ACTOR-NETWORK THEORY...57 BEYOND ACTOR-NETWORK THEORY...66 MATERIAL SEMIOTICS...74 RESEARCHING THE PROBLEM...76 ORDERING THE THESIS OIL 89 EARLY CONNECTIONS...91 MALLEE SELECTION...95 COMMERCIALISATION EARLY PLANTINGS SALINITY INDUSTRIAL SOLVENT COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION LATEST RESEARCH FLUID HEROES SALT 129 EARLY CONNECTIONS CALM AGROFORESTRY GROWERS COMPANY POLICY HYDROLOGY FUNDING UNCERTAINTY vii

8 5. CARBON 169 EARLY CONNECTIONS INTEGRATED PROCESSING POLICY SILOS HARVESTER CARBON CREDITS FLUID CHAMPIONS WHEAT 195 EARLY CONNECTIONS INDIGENOUS OTHERS TECHNOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE MALLEE ALLEYS SUSTAINING RURALITY CONTINUITY 241 OIL MALLEE PROJECT METHODOLOGY SUSTAINABILITY APPENDIX 1. INTERVIEW PARTICIPANTS 263 APPENDIX 2. LOCATIONS IN SOUTH-WESTERN AUSTRALIA 265 APPENDIX 3. INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 267 REFERENCES 273 viii

9 Acknowledgements The Nyoongar and Yamitji peoples, the traditional owners of the country that I travelled in researching this thesis. Murdoch University for the scholarship and other material support, which enabled me to undertake this work, and for a tradition of interdisciplinary enquiry, which persists in the scholars and researchers who work and study there. All those who provided the inspiration and the substance of this thesis by building the Project, by agreeing to be interviewed and by generously welcoming me into their homes and workplaces. Allan Barton, for his persistence as a rigorous scientist and honourable citizen, and for being an open minded and encouraging supervisor. Laura Stocker, for constant but gentle support and guidance in my transition from engineer to social scientist through her primary supervision of this work. Susan Moore, for squeezing me into an obese workload and providing crucial feedback and laughter during the last stages of the thesis. Peter Newman, for making vital connections in the early stages of my candidature. Aidan Davison for useful feedback on chapters 1 and 2 and for being interested when I was just confused. Margaret Gollagher for final proof reading and for making sure things never got too serious. Friends and colleagues at the ISTP for being lively companions on the PhD journey. Mike Prince for asking the right questions, for feeding me and for being a decent human. Lisa and Louise Bell for doing the dishes, mopping the floor, mowing the lawn and being amused by my temporary madness as sisters and housemates at different stages. Rita Williamson for checking up on the chapters, for providing a place called home and for starting the lives that flow into this work. ix

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