Connecting the Bush Telegraph: Promoting Networks in the Global Countryside

Abstract

Processes associated with globalization are increasingly shifting rural areas from being isolated to becoming part of the global countryside. A consequence of this shift is often rural crisis as the inhabitants of these areas frequently find themselves without the institutions to cope with the rapidity and enormity of global changes. A possible feature of globalization is better interconnectedness among individuals across the globe that potentially supplies innovative ideas to local areas. Local informal communications or the "bush telegraph" may support novel input by individuals into community development. This study supplies a reflection on contemporary global networks through semi-structured interviews from inhabitants of rural communities in South Australia. The contributors reside in communities that are economically reliant on producing goods that are competitive in the world market. However, the experiences reported here express more superficial social networks than have been documented previously by research. This unanticipated outcome suggests that rural inhabitants remain unacquainted with the benefits of linkages in a globalized world, effectively assigning them to an environment that receives significant challenges and negligible assistance from globalization processes. This exploration of contemporary social arrangements facilitates initial comments to assist the generation of networks that are more beneficial.