Community as an organising concept in multi-scale natural resource governance: cohesive actor or chaotic subject - a study at The Living Murray

The concept of community has become a fundamental organising idea for the improved governance of natural resources in contemporary society. Institutional arrangements such as state-community partnerships and multi-stakeholder collaborations often structure governance in third way democracies like Australia.In multi-scale and multi-level NRM cases, various socio-ecological scales, political jurisdictions, and stratum of society need to be represented and integrated. As a result, governments often assemble different actors to speak for others andshow a preference for governing community as a site of common association over a complex and diffuse society.Informed by governmentality and actor network theory, and drawing on an in-depth multi-scale case study, this thesis critically examines the concept of community as a useful signifier for different forms of societal organisation and good governance at The Living Murray (TLM) during the policy implementation phase. The research focused on the Community Reference Group (CRG), a consultative group providing advice to decision makers about local and broader community interests in river restoration for Australia's largest multi-jurisdictional river, the River Murray.