Professor Carolyn Hendricks and Ruby Olsson

Scholars and practitioners alike have developed multiple frameworks and models for how socio-technical systems might promote and steer transformative change in the face of climate change. In such schemes, the role of communities is typically conceptualised in terms of providing input, support and ultimately legitimacy for climate adaption and ‘transitions’. In the practice of climate adaptation and transition management communities are regularly invited to provide input on proposed options or to comment on change processes. However, from a place-based perspective, these consultative efforts are often experienced as piecemeal and disconnected, initiated by multiple departments and agencies across different scales. They can generate compounding demands on local residents to turn up and have a say, and leave entire communities fatigued, with limited agency in decisions that affect them.

This paper examines how a group of citizens have sought to ‘take charge’ of their own long-term future in the face of a changing climate. It presents an in-depth case study of a community-led initiative aimed at long-term planning in the Goulburn Murray (GM) region in Victoria. Over the past few decades the GM region has faced successive challenges including salinity, farm debt, and cycles of extreme drought and major flooding. The impacts of changing climate are generating uncertainty for farmers and businesses; predictions suggest that the region’s future will be drier and warmer. The region also faces government schemes to recover water for the environment, technological changes, dynamic markets, energy challenges, and biosecurity risks. 

The paper discusses the governance work being led by community leaders in the GM region to foster long-term strategic planning. The case illuminates how communities are dealing with the uncertainty and complexity of climate change by i) setting up spaces for place-based sense making and knowledge sharing, and ii) stimulating regional initiatives to drive forward transformative environmental, economic, and social change. The challenges and opportunities of community-led governance for state-society relations, and for transformative change are considered.  

Speaker biographies:

Carolyn M. Hendriks is a Professor and Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the ANU. She undertakes social research on democratic aspects of contemporary governance, focusing on themes such as participation, inclusion, listening, and representation. Her recent research explores how citizens themselves are leading collective problem-solving efforts to address governance voids or to repair dysfunctional institutions. She is the author of four books: Democracy in Action (with Albert W. Dzur, Oxford University Press, 2025), Mending Democracy (with Selen A. Ercan and John Boswell, Oxford University Press, 2020), The Politics of Public Deliberation (Palgrave, 2011) and Environmental Decision-Making: Exploring Complexity and Context (with Ronnie Harding and Mehreen Faruqi, The Federation Press, 2009)

Ruby C. Olsson is a social scientist currently pursuing her PhD at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the ANU. Her doctoral research focuses on how land managers are responding to ecological transformation in a changing climate, using a case study of snow gum decline in the Australian Alps. In her work, Ruby explores concepts such as futures literacy, resilience thinking, co-production, and adaptation decision-making frameworks like the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework. Ruby’s research also examines the role of communities in making adaptation decisions and how values (social, economic, and environmental) influence decision-making.  

These seminars are part of a series of talks about society and climate change designed for researchers, students and policy makers. The series provides an opportunity to connect with researchers studying similar topics and present your research in a supportive multidisciplinary environment. PhD and Master students welcome. Held at ANU every six weeks, from 4pm to 5.00 pm, with nibbles and drinks afterwards.  To subscribe to our mailing list email: Sarah.Boddington@anu.edu.au or Hannah.Feldman@anu.edu.au or Rebecca.blackburn@anu.edu.au

Kindly supported by the ANU Institute of Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions.