“It Is Not What You Know, but Who You Know”: The Challenges of Attracting and Retaining Talent in a Rural Australian Region

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the social dynamics of rural regions and how these dynamics link to efforts to attract and retain creative talent. Research on talent attraction and in particular retention of in‐migrated talent in peripheral regions is still limited. Based on a case study in the Cradle Coast region of Tasmania, Australia, we argue that, although local stakeholders are working towards attracting more creative talent, they are also reproducing dynamics that work against job creation and retention on various levels, such as promoting quietness or prioritising social embeddedness, and long‐term ties to the region. These dynamics are hard to address as they are tied up in social values and notions of what constitutes the good life in a rural setting.