Seasons and nomads: Reflections on bioregionalism in Australia

As the world moves beyond nationalism into larger global corporate communities, one response has been to retreat to proximity and, in Kirkpatrick Sale's terms, to "dwell in place." The "imagined community" (Anderson) of the bioregion is human sized: it is a homeland not a nation. The notion of the "bioregional imagination" as explored throughout this book is created by place- conscious literature, art, natural- history writing, and thoughtful daily living. It is an effort to cultivate the sort of community Sale and others imagine, one that, many believe, might enable us to dwell more sustainably in place. What I investigate here, however, is how in the Australian context a bioregionally inspired attunement to place may lead away from rooted forms of dwelling and toward the very sort of nomadic or migratory lifestyles that so much bioregional discourse critiques.