The cultural relations of water in remote South Australian towns
Abstract
Water is an increasingly scarce resource and the decline in rainfall presupposes people
and communities adapting to live in drier, and very different, social and
environmental conditions. In rural and remote South Australia residents have always
considered water a reflexive resource that requires them to consider their relationship
to water and its availability and access. These are material concerns. Yet, lifestyle,
identity, sense of place and community is profoundly shaped by the inclusion of
‘water’ in one’s habitus. ‘Water’ is also a social concern and its material management
arises within cultural relations.