Culture and Sustainable Development in the Pacific

Culture and Sustainable Development in the Pacific

Author: Antony Hooper

Publisher: ANU E Press

Published: 2005-04-01

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 192094222X

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Throughout the South Pacific, notions of ‘culture’ and ‘development’ are very much alive—in political debate, the media, sermons, and endless discussions amongst villagers and the urban élites, even in policy reports. Often the terms are counterposed, and development along with ‘economic rationality’, ‘good governance’ and ‘progress’ is set against culture or ‘custom’, ‘tradition’ and ‘identity’. The decay of custom and impoverishment of culture are often seen as wrought by development, while failures of development are haunted by the notion that they are due, somehow, to the darker, irrational influences of culture. The problem is to resolve the contradictions between them so as to achieve the greater good—access to material goods, welfare and amenities, ‘modern life’—without the sacrifice of the ‘traditional’ values and institutions that provide material security and sustain diverse social identities. Resolution is sought in this book by a number of leading writers from the South Pacific including Langi Kavaliku, Epeli Hau’ofa, Marshall Sahlins, Malama Meleisea, Joeli Veitayaki, and Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka. The volume is brought together for UNESCO by Antony Hooper, Professor Emeritus at the University of Auckland. UNESCO experts include Richard Engelhardt, Langi Kavaliku, Russell Marshall, Malama Meleisea, Edna Tait and Mali Voi.


A Clash of Paradigms: Response and Development in the South Pacific

A Clash of Paradigms: Response and Development in the South Pacific

Author: Suan Maiava

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-11-01

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 1040278787

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This title was first published in 2001. This study indicates that researchers have far to go in understanding and assessing how development projects work. The author shows that, often, the perception of failure is not shared by those whom were intended to benefit. She uses a case study of Samoan villagers introduced to cattle farming to examine the wider development process and challenge the conventional theories. By drawing on people-centred perspectives that give much greater weight to the role of culture in development, the volume does not simply criticize development project management, but suggests practical and positive ways forward, encouraging spontaneous indigenous development which should be supported by projects where appropriate.


The Growth and Collapse of Pacific Island Societies

The Growth and Collapse of Pacific Island Societies

Author: Patrick Vinton Kirch

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2007-04-30

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13: 0824831489

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Were there major population collapses on Pacific Islands following first contact with the West? If so, what were the actual population numbers for islands such as Hawai‘i, Tahiti, or New Caledonia? Is it possible to develop new methods for tracking the long-term histories of island populations? These and related questions are at the heart of this new book, which draws together cutting-edge research by archaeologists, ethnographers, and demographers. In their accounts of exploration, early European voyagers in the Pacific frequently described the teeming populations they encountered on island after island. Yet missionary censuses and later nineteenth-century records often indicate much smaller populations on Pacific Islands, leading many scholars to debunk the explorers’ figures as romantic exaggerations. Recently, the debate over the indigenous populations of the Pacific has intensified, and this book addresses the problem from new perspectives. Rather than rehash old data and arguments about the validity of explorers’ or missionaries’ accounts, the contributors to this volume offer a series of case studies grounded in new empirical data derived from original archaeological fieldwork and from archival historical research. Case studies are presented for the Hawaiian Islands, Mo‘orea, the Marquesas, Tonga, Samoa, the Tokelau Islands, New Caledonia, Aneityum (Vanuatu), and Kosrae.


Passage of Change

Passage of Change

Author: Anita Jowitt

Publisher: ANU E Press

Published: 2010-11-01

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 1921666897

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Numerous issues face Pacific states trying to find their way in the early 21st century. Countries are striving to secure the benefits of modernisation. Governance, law and order are needed to reach such a goal, but development cannot be at the price of culture or the environment. The question of how to develop and maintain sound legal systems and legal rules whilst maintaining the unique cultural heritages within the Pacific is a challenge with no easy answer. This interdisciplinary collection locates issues of law and governance within the particular socio-political context of the Pacific island region, presenting sociological, anthropological and political insights alongside jurisprudential analysis. Key issues including corruption, the role of customary law in modern legal systems, the place of human rights in the Pacific, environmental issues and the structure of the state are explored from a variety of perspectives.


Framing the Islands

Framing the Islands

Author: Greg Fry

Publisher: ANU Press

Published: 2019-10-25

Total Pages: 419

ISBN-13: 1760463159

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Since its origins in late eighteenth-century European thought, the idea of placing a regional frame around the Pacific islands has never been just an exercise in geographical mapping. This framing has always been a political exercise. Contending regional projects and visions have been part of a political struggle concerning how Pacific islanders should live their lives. Framing the Islands tells the story of this political struggle and its impact on the regional governance of key issues for the Pacific such as regional development, resource management, security, cultural identity, political agency, climate change and nuclear involvement. It tells this story in the context of a changing world order since the colonial period and of changing politics within the post-colonial states of the Pacific. Framing the Islands argues that Pacific regionalism has been politically significant for Pacific island states and societies. It demonstrates the power associated with the regional arena as a valued site for the negotiation of global ideas and processes around development, security and climate change. It also demonstrates the political significance associated with the role of Pacific regionalism as a diplomatic bloc in global affairs, and as a producer of powerful policy norms attached to funded programs. This study also challenges the expectation that Pacific regionalism largely serves hegemonic powers and that small islands states have little diplomatic agency in these contests. Pacific islanders have successfully promoted their own powerful normative framings of Oceania in the face of the attempted hegemonic impositions from outside the region; seen, for example, in the strong commitment to the ‘Blue Pacific continent’ framing as a guiding ideology for the policy work of the Pacific Islands Forum in the face of pressures to become part of Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy.


Architecture in the South Pacific

Architecture in the South Pacific

Author: Jennifer Taylor

Publisher:

Published: 2014-07-31

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13:

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This book recounts the recent development of the South Pacific and the regions fascinating architecture. It traces the European architectural overlay onto this scattered group of Islands and their transition toward a regional identity that has been fashioned by the remote location, the incomparable setting and the distinctive ethnic mix of its inhabitants. Includes many photos.


Tourism in Pacific Islands

Tourism in Pacific Islands

Author: Stephen Pratt

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-02-20

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1317682580

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Pacific Island Countries have been shown to be especially vulnerable to such external influences as natural disasters, political unrest and downturns in the global economy and their tourism industries have been notably affected. In particular, they typically have a narrow resource base and a fragile and often vulnerable natural environment. While there is some research on islands and small states, there is a dearth of information on the South Pacific and very little research is being undertaken in the region compared to other geographical regions in the world. This volume brings together current work in Pacific Island tourism. In this collection, three main themes arise: Images of the South Pacific; Socio-economic Impacts of Tourism; and Pacific Island Countries and the Outside World. The first focus is on the question of image, namely, stereotypes of a destination held by tourists and potential tourists, the extent to which residents, for their part, really welcome visitors, and the role tourism might play in changing pre-established images. The second theme is tourism's impacts, notably the economic and socio-cultural effects of international tourism's intrusion in the region which, though often hotly debated, have attracted relatively little empirical research. The third focus is on the challenges of how PICs articulate with their external geo-political and physical environment. These involve existing relations with formal colonial centres, geographical isolation, the need for greater air access to the outside world and for more tourists, and the continuing threat to several PICs of global warming, which increased air travel will inevitably exacerbate. This text will be of interest to tourism students, researchers and academics in the fields of tourism, development studies and cultural studies.


Reimagining the American Pacific

Reimagining the American Pacific

Author: Rob Wilson

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 9780822325239

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Discusses the makings of the "American Pacific" locality/location/identity as space and ground of cultural production, and the way this region can be linked to "Asia" and "Pacific" as well as to "American mainland"


Introduction to South Pacific Law

Introduction to South Pacific Law

Author: Jennifer Corrin Care

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 1845680391

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Providing an overview of the origins and development of the law and legal systems in the South Pacific, the authors examine the framework of legal systems in the region and the operation of state and customary laws. Exploring, not only the legal system generally, but also the constitution and jurisdiction of state courts and legislative provisions of individual jurisdictions and cases, it contains individual chapters on substantive areas of law. They cover: administrative law constitutional law contract law criminal law customary law family law land law tort law. Highlighting the distinguishing features of the substantive law in force in the South Pacific, this book is an essential resource for all those interested in the law of the South Pacific Islands region.