Farming exit and ascriptions of blame: the ordinary ethics of farming communities
Files
(Published version)
Date
2018
Authors
Bryant, L.
Garnham, B.
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Journal article
Citation
Journal of Rural Studies, 2018; 62:62-67
Statement of Responsibility
Conference Name
Abstract
During times of prolonged drought and other significant threats to farming viability, the Australian Government provides farm exit support grants which are intended to enable farmers to leave farms that are economically non-viable. This paper focuses on some of the discourses that circulate within farming communities that constitute farmers’ decisions to accept exit packages as a moral event. Moral discourses in everyday social interaction and mundane conversation constitute what Lambek (2010) refers to as ‘ordinary ethics’. In farmer narratives, ordinary ethics are enacted through communicative labour to invoke blame about what constitutes a ‘bad’ farmer. Blame is situated as a transgression of rural values and ideals of the ‘respectable’ farmer and the moral standards mobilised for rural citizenship and land husbandry. Understanding these normative discourses and attributions can provide insight into the social and discursive dynamics in rural communities that shape loss of self-worth and provide the conditions for the possibility for distress among farmers who are in the process of deciding to exit farming or who have accepted an exit packag
School/Discipline
Dissertation Note
Provenance
Description
Access Status
Rights
Copyright 2018 Elsevier
Access Condition Notes: Accepted manuscript available after 1 October 2020