Dominant Voices in 'New' Local Governance Structures: Gender, Language and Entrepreneurial Behaviour in a Rural Australian Setting

Over the past decade, the topic of rural governance has generated considerable interest as regional Australia seeks to find innovative ways to remain sustainable, and rural communities seek to mobilise their energies to adopt to an aging population and increasing global competition. However, despite this apparent interest in new forms of governance and innovation, old forms participation continue (Pini, 2005a). Gender relationships in regional communities remain traditional, and gendered communication and participation patterns remain strongly stable. This paper takes up the issue of gender and governance in rural areas by reporting on a new governing organisation in a local government area in a small township in Australia. The paper draws a link between gender and entrepreneurial activity (a significant quality claimed as characteristic of these governance bodies), and offers a case study, involving interviews, participant observation, and document analysis to examine how the discourses of governance, rurality, gender, and entrepreneurship play across each other to constitute the identities of rural communities. The paper concludes that, while there may be a lot that is 'new' in the governance of regional Australia, these forms of governance are gendered, just as the traditional state has always been, in a way that excludes women and feminie subjectivities.