| Abstract: | The quest for solutions to urban unemployment prompted the federal government to give serious consideration to providing support and encouragement to alternative rural communities. It hoped that residents in these communities would withdraw from the formal labour market and establish alternatives to conventional employment. A study of 20 rural land sharing communities in New South Wales indicates that at the present time these communities do not provide a supply-side ameliorator of unemployment and that their future economic viability would depend on substantial government support for local employment initiatives. What the lifestyle in these communities clearly offers, however, is a quality of life denied to those on the dole. |
