The Conquest of the Peri-Urban: Sustainability and Postcolonialism

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This paper takes the case of the proposed building of the Traveston dam on the Mary River in Australia to examine the ways postcolonial power relations are played out in city/regional relationships to further the interests of the city. Postcolonialism is concerned with unravelling multiple histories of colonisation, and identifying the reproduction, contestation, ambivalence and transformation of modes of domination and subordination in colonial relations. Political contingencies and contestations by residents, farmers, traditional Indigenous owners and environmentalists seeking to protect endangered species are examined to highlight the dominance of Western anthropocentric, technocentric, and eurocentric epistemologies in political, ecological, environmental, bioethical debates.

Stream: Cultural Sustainability

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Julie Matthews is Associate Professor of Social Sciences, Director of Research inthe Faculty of Arts and Social Science, and a member of the Regional Sustainability Research Concentration, at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland Australia. Her background is in sociology, anthropology and education and her work is informed by postcolonial, feminist and Foucauldian theory.

Dr Tim Smith is an Associate Professor in Sustainability Science at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) and currently leads the Regional Sustainability Research Group. His research interests include climate change, social learning and adaptablity, sustainability research and community engagement for resources management.