The future of Australia's country towns

This book describes and analyses the complex reasons for the economic and social decline of Australia's country towns. The authors discuss the plight of country towns and rural communities from various perspectives, with economic considerations often balanced by the issues surrounding environmental sustainability and the use of natural resources, community sustainability and social development. Rather than considering small town decline a purely, economic problem with an economic solution, the book generally places strong emphasis on the value of community collaboration and cooperation. The building of social capital is stressed as an important policy strategy by many of the authors. Each chapter in the book has been separately indexed (retrieve under the book's title) except for the following: Regional tourism and its economic development links for small communities, by Peter Murphy and Ann Murphy; Business clustering: panacea or placebo for regional Australia, by Julian Lowe and Paul Miller; Supermarkets: scourge or saviour by Angus Witherby.