WS 1: Learning, collective action and empowerment for rural reorganisation 8 th European IFSA Symposium, 6 -10 July 2008, Clermont-Ferrand (France) 55 Collaboration in action: the Dairy Moving Forward response to drought Mark Paine, Ruth Nettle University of Melbourne, Faculty of Land and Food Resources, VIC, Australia - mspaine@unimelb.edu.au Abstract: Dairy Moving Forward (DMF) was an AUD$5 million programme launched in 2003 to support farmers with drought impacts on dairy businesses across the country. It was the first programme, coordinating at a national level, to align public and private sector service organisations in a joint dairy sector initiative. The objective of DMF was to provide all dairy farmers with a better understanding of their situation and take action from a more informed position regarding the implications of the drought for their business. The DMF programme provided an opportunity to research the emergence of collaboration as the vision statement was for ‘an industry acting together through powerful collaborative leadership’. An emphasis was placed on collaboration over competition, building capacity of people and organisations, and goal attainment. It relied on regional and professional networks as necessary components of sector development. This paper provides an analysis of the ways organisations participated in DMF, constructing joint work areas and performing a shared delivery of tasks. Data for this study was gathered from three rounds of semi structured interviews with key DMF participants. Interviews focused on the key evaluative outcome areas while retaining sufficient flexibility to explore issues with respondents where appropriate. Additional data was gathered from participant observations of significant Dairy Moving Forward meetings. Data was captured using audio recordings and field notes that were later transcribed and thematically analysed using the software package, N-Vivo. Results indicate that historical considerations were an important factor in collaboration, with many respondents referring to collaboration as a distinctive cultural attribute of the dairy industry, relative to other industries. The provision of cash by a lead organisation acted as a catalyst to organisations to engage with DMF. Partner organisations needed to bring resources to the table too, to complement cash contributions. All partners shared a sense that the industry was in a crisis of such magnitude that it would take a joint response to manage our way through the drought. Keywords: collaboration, information, farm management, service provision Introduction The use of collaborative business arrangements varies between agricultural industries. Historically these arrangements were often used when there was a need to pool resources, for example the processing of a product like milk. As a generalisation we can say that industries with a long history of collaboration tend to have farmers who share common needs and perceive little competitive threat from their neighbouring farmers. We define collaboration as working together to achieve something of benefit, for each of the partners in the collaboration. Partners may have aligned goals related to a common agenda, or they may pursue different goals that are mutually beneficial. In this paper we examine an industry development programme called Dairy Moving Forward (DMF) and ask, how do organisations work together, what undermines collaborative initiatives and who determines when such an approach is appropriate? We use an interactionist perspective to conduct this study. As such we are particularly interested in building an understanding of adaptation as a constructive process, where new possibilities for action emerge when different individuals and groups link their practices. This perspective has implications for the study of learning. Fay (1996) points out that interactionist social science approaches the research of learning as a social process. Interactionism … identifies as a central task for social science to uncover precisely how earlier webs of ideas and practices internalize, adapt, exploit, or re-see what was once alien and perhaps more powerful. Interactionism as an ethic urges people to engage differences in ways that explore possibilities for productive and positive learning from each other. People can learn about each other and from others, thereby not only learning about them and themselves but also opening up new possibilities for themes and other in the processes of engagement. (Fay, 1996, p.234)