Participant-governed networks as catalysts for sustainable transport and tourism infrastructure: the Northern Rivers Rail Trail, Australia

ABSTRACT

Converting disused railway corridors into multi-purpose spaces to achieve strategic sustainable mobility, leisure, and/or tourism objectives is an increasingly prevalent public policy issue. Previous literature suggests it is often bottom-up processes driven by networks of community-level actors that generate community support and political will to operationalise rail trail visions, though a lack of understanding of such ‘bottom-up’ advocacy processes exists. This study adopted the concept of participant-governed networks to explore the structure and function of a grassroots, community-based network which secured political support and financial commitment for a regional transport and tourism project encompassing construction of a rail trail in northern New South Wales, Australia. Our analysis shows this network comprised an intuitive core–periphery structure of community-minded actors who contributed an eclectic range of resources to consolidate broader political and community networks to advance the rail trail vision.

KEYWORDS:

• Rail trails
• social network analysis
• participant-governed networks
• sustainable mobility
• tourism policy
• community entrepreneurship

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Northern Rivers Rail Trail Inc. for providing access to records and network participants for this research. The authors are also grateful to Professor Robyn Keast for her insightful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. Parts of this research were presented at the ANZALS 2019 conference.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by an internal research grant from Southern Cross University.

Notes on contributors

Matthew Lamont

Matthew Lamont is a Senior Lecturer in at Southern Cross University, Australia. Matt's research addresses social aspects of leisure with specific focus on sport tourism and sport-based leisure.

Pascal Scherrer

Pascal Scherrer is a Senior Lecturer at Southern Cross University, Australia. With a background in environmental science and ecotourism, Pascal's main research interest is in sustainable tourism and visitor management in natural and cultural landscapes, addressing the areas of environmental, social and cultural impacts and their relationship. His research experience spans a variety of tourism contexts, including coastal, island, indigenous, remote and protected area settings.

Kay Dimmock

Kay Dimmock is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Southern Cross University, Australia. Her research extends across aspects of tourism and leisure from business to marine tourism and tourism in higher education. Kay works closely with tourism stakeholders including industry, community, researchers and government agencies to understand social dimensions of leisure and tourism.