Agrarian pragmatics: How women on family farms in Queensland, Australia negotiate competing discourses to enact their agrarian ideals
Article
McInnerney, Marlyn and Palmer, Jane. 2025. "Agrarian pragmatics: How women on family farms in Queensland, Australia negotiate competing discourses to enact their agrarian ideals
." Journal of Rural Studies. 120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103878
| Article Title | Agrarian pragmatics: How women on family farms in Queensland, Australia negotiate competing discourses to enact their agrarian ideals |
|---|---|
| ERA Journal ID | 20886 |
| Article Category | Article |
| Authors | McInnerney, Marlyn and Palmer, Jane |
| Journal Title | Journal of Rural Studies |
| Journal Citation | 120 |
| Article Number | 103878 |
| Number of Pages | 11 |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
| ISSN | 0743-0167 |
| 1873-1392 | |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103878 |
| Web Address (URL) | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0743016725003195 |
| Abstract | Based on a new ethnographic study in south-western Queensland Australia, we explore the evolving discourses that inform the roles and lives of women in farm family enterprises. We find that agrarianism, as one of those discourses, powerfully motivates the substantial contributions women make to the construction, reproduction and maintenance of family farms, farm families, and land stewardship. The women in the study experience two other main discursive realities in their farm lives: long-standing traditional masculine hegemony and more recently, neo-liberal concepts of farm-as-business. These two narratives however can be leveraged to realize agrarian ideals through a form of agrarian pragmatics that bodes well for gender equity and land stewardship within a more contemporary form of agrarianism. |
| Keywords | Farm family discourses; Agrarianism; Women on farms; Resilience; Land stewardship; Empowerment |
| Article Publishing Charge (APC) Funding | Other |
| Contains Sensitive Content | Does not contain sensitive content |
| ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 440504. Gender relations |
| 440609. Rural and regional geography | |
| Byline Affiliations | Rural Economies Centre of Excellence (Research) |
| Centre for Heritage and Culture (Research) | |
| School of Humanities and Communication | |
| Centre for Heritage and Culture |
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