For Wes Ward, adjunct research fellow at Charles Sturt University, researchers must move beyond the idea they’re separate from the individuals and communities they are studying.

In this episode of What’s Sociology Got To Do With It?, Ward challenges researchers to recognise the web of individuals involved in agricultural systems. That is, he challenges them to think of the shearers, the contract workers, the farm managers and everyone else involved in running a farm. He says that this ‘thinking of the big picture’ is the only way organisations, researchers and farmers can move towards shared goals, building trust and fixing the challenges actually facing Australian farmers.

He argues that researchers and organisations cannot become truly embedded in their communities when trust is missing from that relationship. In these scenarios, Ward says there can be no effective sharing of knowledge, skills and technologies.

If you want to contact Ward, he can be reached by e-mail at [email protected], or by contacting Charles Sturt University’s Institute for Land, Water and Society.

A transcript of this episode is available at www.thatsociologypodcast.org

Produced by Dr Sarina Kilham with support from Charles Sturt University and The Australian Sociological Association for Social Science Week 2020.