Search results

This project emerged from a conversation on the e-mail listserv of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania (ASAO). Kate Barclay and several other participants on the list were debating about the role of business in contemporary Pacific Islander societies, and wondering about people who have managed to make their engagements with capitalism work for them while also managing to retain the material and cultural benefits of their noncapitalist social lives. How might people manage to gain some of what they want from capitalism – greater wealth, access to health and education services, and wider life opportunities – without losing the valued aspects of their culture and social relationships? Fiona McCormack galvanized Kate into proposing the topic for a working session at the next ASAO conference, at Honolulu in early 2011. The large room was full of people interested in the topic, some of whom then committed to produce papers for a joint publication. The discussion was wide ranging and intense, covering topics from development and the complexities of making projects work, to notions of personhood and sociality, and how these change in the presence of capitalism. We worked on our papers for a year and came together again with drafts at the 2012 ASAO meeting in Portland, Oregon. This time the discussion was even more penetrating as we worked through the ideas in more depth, and by the end of the day the participants were much in need of some of the excellent local beer and oysters. Once we had the drafts together Donald Wood, the Research in Economic Anthropology series editor for Emerald, came on board and we started working toward this publication.

My warm thanks to Dean James Hunt, Provost, and Professor Jacqueline Muir-Broaddus, Chair of the Psychology Department, for making a home at Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas, for cultural ergonomics and the International Center of Cultural Ergonomics, and for facilitating preparation of this book. Southwestern students Kendra Francisco, Staci Benson, and Ellen Gass contributed helpful assistance. At Elsevier, Fiona Barron, Publishing Editor, has been extraordinarily helpful, and the consideration and support there from Becky Lewsey and Deborah Raven have been particularly noteworthy. Dr. Pierre Falzon, Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers in Paris, made possible the acquisition of documents written by Professor Alain Wisner, who died recently. Computer advice and assistance provided by Richard H. Troxell have been invaluable. Communication and interchange of documents and information with Dr. Eduardo Salas at the University of Central Florida were facilitated by Marcella Maresco and Diana Furman.