Associate Professor Neil Argent
Associate Professor, School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences
Qualifications
BA(Hons), PhD (Adel)
Contact
| Email: | nargent@une.edu.au |
| Room: | Earth Sciences (C2) 321 |
| Phone: | 02 6773 2803 (or +61 2 6773 2803 overseas) |
| Fax: | 02 6773 3030 |
Affiliations
- Member of the Institute of Australian Geographers Inc.
- Member of the Institute of Australian Geographers Inc. Rural Studies Group
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Member of the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia Inc.
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Member of the Geographical Society of New South Wales Inc.
- Member of the Agri-Food Research Network
- Committee Member, Regional Development Australia-Northern Inland
Areas of Teaching
I currently teach in five units in the Division of Geography and Planning:
GEPL112 Australia: Where in the world?
GEPL322 Cradle to Grave – Introductory Population Geography
GEPL321/521 Population, health and environment
GEPL345/545 Regional Development: Problems and Policies
GEPL380/580 Understanding rural communities
Research interests
My research interests centre on understanding the factors and processes that make robust and sustainable rural communities. I am particularly keen on investigating the role of migration – especially city to rural migration and youth out-migration from rural areas – in changing the social and demographic make-up of rural communities. I also have a strong interest in social theory, especially as it relates to our understandings of space and place and the key roles each plays within our lives. All of these research interests are reflected in my list of grants and publications (below). In summary, I would say that I’m a geographer because I am fascinated with understanding why standards of living and ways of life vary from place to place. For me it is critical to know these things before we can intervene to tackle problems like poverty and deleterious environmental change.
Grants awarded (since 2005)
2004 -2006, Australian Research Council (Discovery-Project Grant), Dr Neil Argent, ‘Perceived Density, Social Interaction and Morale in Australian Rural Communities’, 3 years, $150 000.
2007- 2010, Australian Research Council (Discovery-Project Grant), Dr Neil Argent, Prof. Roy Jones, Prof. John Holmes and Dr Matthew Tonts, ‘The Amenity Principle: The causes, incidence and landuse planning implications of amenity-led rural settlement in Australia, 4 years, $187 000.
2007 – 2008, Australian Research Council (Discovery-Project Grant), Prof. John Martin, Dr Bill Pritchard, Dr Phil McManus, Assoc. Prof. Scott Baum, Prof. Jim Walmsley, Assoc. Prof. Tony Sorensen, Assoc. Prof. Lisa Bourke and Dr Neil Argent, ‘Australia’s Rural Heartlands: Declining economic fortune or dynamic regional adjustment?, 2 years, $170 000.
2009-2010, Australian Research Council (Discovery-Project Grant), DP0985831, Assoc. Prof. Neil Argent, Dr Fran Rolley, Prof. Jim Walmsley and Dr Rae Dufty, 'Home and Away? Defining and conceptualising rural youth migration in Australia', 2 years, $120 000
Recent publications (since 2005)
Smailes, P., T. Griffin and N. Argent 2005, “The Changing Social Framework” in Sustainability and Change in Rural Australia, Cocklin, C. and J. Dibden (Eds.), UNSW Press, Sydney, 80-102.
Argent, N. 2005, The Neoliberal Seduction: Governing-At-A-Distance, Community Development and the Battle Over Regional Financial Provision in Australia, Australian Geographical Studies, 43, 29-39.
O’Neill, P. and N. Argent 2005 Neoliberalism in Antipodean Spaces and Times: an Introduction to the Special Theme Issue, Australian Geographical Studies, 43, 2-8.
Argent, N., P. Smailes and T. Griffin 2005, Tracing the Density Impulse: population density as a constitutive influence in Australia contemporary population and settlement geography, Population and Environment, 27, 151-190.
Argent, N. and F. Rolley 2006, “Inhabiting the margins: A geography of rural homelessness in Australia” in International Perspectives on Rural Homelessness, Cloke, P. and P. Milbourne (Eds.), Routledge, London, 208-230.
Argent, N. 2006, Rural population trends and their implications for planning: the cases of inland Queensland and New South Wales, Queensland Planner, 46, 20-22.
Argent, N., P. Smailes and T. Griffin 2007, The Amenity Complex: Towards a framework for analysing and predicting the emergence of a multifunctional countryside in Australia, Geographical Research, 45, 217-232.
Argent, N. and F. Rolley 2007, The geography of rural homelessness in Australia: Towards a new research agenda, Parity, 20, 31-32.
Argent, N., F. Rolley and A. Sorensen 2007, The economic geography of the Gwydir and Macquarie River catchment towns: Current features, future prospects and challenges, Division of Geography and Planning, University of New England, Armidale, 50 pp.
Gibson, C. and N. Argent 2008, Getting on, getting up and getting out? Broadening perspectives on rural youth migration, Geographical Research, 46, 135-138.
Argent, N. and D. Walmsley 2008, Rural youth migration trends in Australia: An overview of recent trends and two inland case studies, Geographical Research, 46, 139-152.
Argent, N., F. Rolley and D. Walmsley 2008, The sponge city hypothesis: Does it hold water?, Australian Geographer, 39, 109-129.
Argent, N. 2008, Perceived density, social interaction and morale in New South Wales rural communities, Journal of Rural Studies 24, 245-261.
Argent, N. 2009, “Social nature” in International Encyclopaedia of Human Geography, Thrift, N. and R. Kitchin (eds.), Elsevier, London, 303-308.
Walmsley, D. and N. Argent, 2009, From the outside looking in and the inside looking out: Whatever happened to ‘behavioural geography’?, Geographical Research 47, 192-203.
Argent, N. 2009, ‘Putting social capital in context: A critical examination of social capital and the sustainability of Australian rural communities’ in New ruralities and the sustainable use of territory: Proceedings of the 16th Colloquium of the Commission on the Sustainability of Rural Systems of the International Geographical Union (IGU), Frutos, L. M., Climent, E., Ruiz, E., Bicalho, A. And Laurens, L. (eds.), Prensas Unversitarias de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, 279-297.
Argent, N., D. Walmsley and A. Sorensen 2010, ‘Something old, something new, something borrowed, something …..? Rediscovering the comparative advantage of the ‘new’ pastoral economies of northern New South Wales, Australia’ in The next rural economies: Constructing rural place in global economies , Halseth, G., S. Markey and W. Reimer (Eds.), CABI Publishing, Wallingford, 17-31.
Walmsley, D., N. Argent, F. Rolley and M. Tonts 2010, ‘Inland migration’ in Australians on the move: Australian mobility in the new millennium, Ashgate, Aldershot, forthcoming.
Argent, N. 2011, ”Regions and communities dividing? Australian rural development in a multifunctional context” in Geographical Perspectives on Sustainable Rural Change, Winchell, R., D. Ramsey, R. Koster and G. Robinson (eds.), Rural Development Institute, Brandon University, Brandon, 330-347.
Argent, N., M. Tonts, R. Jones and J. Holmes 2011, “Amenity-led migration in rural Australia: A new driver of local demographic and environmental change?” in Luck, G., R. Black and D. Race (eds.), Demographic change in rural landscapes: What does it mean for society and the environment?, Springer, Dordrecht, 23-44.
Argent, N. 2011, “Australian agriculture in the global economic mosaic” in Globalisation and agriculture in the Asia-Pacific, Tonts, M. and A. Siddique (eds.), Edward Elgar,
Pritchard, W., N. Argent, S. Baum, L. Bourke, J. Martin, P. McManus, A. Sorensen and D. Walmsley (2010) Local-if-possible: How the spatial networking of economic relations amongst farm enterprises aids small town survival in rural Australia, Regional Studies 34, 1-19.
Argent, N. 2011 What’s new about rural governance?: Australian perspectives and introduction to the special theme, Australian Geographer 42, 95-103.
Argent, N. 2011 Trouble in paradise?: Governing Australia’s multifunctional landscapes, Australian Geographer 42, 183-205.
McGuirk, P. and N. Argent 2011 Population growth and change: Implications for Australia’s cities and regions, Geographical Research 49, 317-335.
Recent Students
Darrell Fisher (MA) The tourism potential of dairy heritage in the Clarence Valley of New South Wales
Amanda Davies (PhD) Rural Leadership in Australia