Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/23206
Title: The redefined role of finance in Australian agriculture
Contributor(s): Larder, Nicolette  (author)orcid ; Sippel, Sarah Ruth (author); Argent, Neil  (author)orcid 
Publication Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1080/00049182.2017.1388555
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/23206
Abstract: In their highly influential teaching and research text Global Restructuring: The Australian Experience Fagan and Webber set out a substantivist, institutionalist and multi-scalar account of the Australian space economy's relatively rapid and radical globalisation after 1980. This paper extends Fagan and Webber's global restructuring thesis to Australian farming and agriculture, connecting historical and more recent scholarship on agriculture-finance relations. We highlight two areas where finance has fundamentally reshaped the agricultural sector. First, we argue that financial restructuring has shifted the relationship between farmers and lenders. Second, we suggest that under the logics of finance, Australian land and water are emerging as 'alternative' financial asset classes. The paper demonstrates that Australian agriculture has become subject to a comprehensive process of finance-driven economic restructuring over recent decades. Regulatory changes since the 1980s have resulted in an agricultural sector where finance's growing role is normalised as a part of the sector's operation. Importantly, we stress the paramount role governments have played in redefining agri-finance relationships in Australia by promoting and providing the regulatory framework for processes of marketisation and assetisation, thereby making agriculture attractive to subsequent financial investments. Finance does not operate on its own but relies on the state's crucial role in incentivising and setting the conditions for finance capital.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: Australian Geographer, 49(3), p. 397-418
Publisher: Routledge
Place of Publication: Australia
ISSN: 1465-3311
0004-9182
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 160403 Social and Cultural Geography
160401 Economic Geography
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 440603 Economic geography
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 959999 Cultural Understanding not elsewhere classified
919999 Economic Framework not elsewhere classified
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 280123 Expanding knowledge in human society
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article
School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

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