Search results

Using the United Nations’ definition of least developed nations, examines the socioeconomic situation of the least developed Pacific island nations, namely the Melanesian countries – the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, the Polynesian countries – Samoa and Tuvalu, and the Micronesian country – Kiribati, and critically discusses the type of development policy advice given to these nations by Bretton Woods’ institutions and their “relatives”. Suggests that the emphasis of these institutions and many donor countries on the desirability of business‐led development, structural adjustment policies and the globalisation of these economies has paid insufficient attention to the cultural background, institutional and other constraints encountered by these economies and may have added to political instability in this region, as well as the occurrence of poverty and growing inequality. A different set of policy proposals would have emerged if greater account had been taken of the general views of Myrdal rather than relying almost exclusively on the neoclassical economic paradigm. This is especially unfortunate because severe poverty (even more so than in much of Asia) exists in several of these least developed nations e.g. the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

For more than a quarter of a century there has been substantial emigration from the smaller island states of the Pacific to metropolitan fringe states, mainly the USA, New Zealand and Australia. Migration reduced unemployment in island states and remittances have contributed to raised living standards. This paper provides a better understanding of the implications of remittances for economic and social development in the Pacific region. It discusses alternative explanations of remittances, estimates of the size of remittance flows, the impact of remittances on the home country, and policies that influence the flow of remittances. Much of the empirical work in this paper is based on Tonga and Samoa, although the findings apply more generally to other Pacific island nations.

While the South Pacific is often cited as highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, there is comparatively little known about how different groups perceive climate change. Understanding the gaps and differences between risk and perceived risk is a prerequisite to designing effective and sustainable adaptation strategies.

This research examined three key groups in Samoa, Fiji and Vanuatu: secondary school teachers, media personnel, and rural subsistence livelihood-based communities that live near or in conservation areas. This study deployed a dual methodology of participatory focus groups, paired with a national mobile phone based survey to gauge perceptions of climate change. This was the first time mobile technology had been used to gather perceptual data regarding the environment in the South Pacific.

The research findings highlighted a number of important differences and similarities in ways that these groups perceive climate change issues, solutions, personal vulnerability and comprehension of science among other factors.

These differences and similarities are neglected in large-scale top-down climate change adaptation strategies and have key implications for the design of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and therefore sustainable development in the region.

The research was innovative in terms of its methods, as well as its distillation of the perceptions of climate change from teachers, media and rural communities.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an in‐depth study of indigenous Samoan economic systems, to ascertain what aspects of the systems enable community values and innovation; what are the effects of neo‐colonial globalisation on the functionality of the systems, and what can be deduced about the best ways to ensure sustainable economic development of Samoan villages in face of globalisation.

Participatory action research has been carried out continuously within two Samoan villages between 1995 and 2006. Grounded theoretical approaches have been critically utilised, based on primary data from within the villages, local Samoan literature and academic literature from multiple disciplines, including human ecology, postcolonial literature; indigenous knowledge (IK); entrepreneurship, and post‐Keynesian and development economics. Ethnographic detail is included in the presentation of grounded theoretical constructs.

Community values are incorporated into business activities within the Samoan villages researched. Community values operate at two levels: that of an extended family and of the village comprising of extended families. Different sets of resources are available and managed by extended families and villages. The chief of each extended family is an entrepreneur as well as manager to ensure the economic viability and independence of their family, and that their capital base is enhanced. The chiefs of extended families form a village council which determines how village resources are utilised. The systems, based on IK, are functional to fulfil community values of equity and lack of poverty. Samoan indigenous entrepreneurship operates to ensure the independence of all extended families, including their capacity to be innovative. This appears to be possible because of the customary land tenure system that does not allow alienation of natural capital. Such a conclusion contradicts the commonly expressed view that economic development requires the creation of tradable property rights.

Only two Samoan villages were researched in depth. They are both traditional and from the same district. Even though this enables high‐quality data to be obtained about indigenous economic systems in Samoan village, it did into provide data about what may be more generally occurring among Samoan villages. Notwithstanding this, data were gained about what are the deep cultural pressures and challenges as Samoan indigenous economic systems face neo‐colonial globalisation.

In contradiction to what is commonly argued in development economics literature, the research has found that the instituting of tradable property rights is likely to degrade economic development. The reason is because the IK constituting the Samoan indigenous economic systems implicates inalienable property rights for extended families and villages. Even though access to development capital through the opportunity to mortgage property may bring initial increase in economic development, community values to ensure equity and lack of poverty are likely to be compromised. The research concludes that the best option for the sustainable development of Samoan rural villages is to maintain customary land tenure, but to ensure there remains an ongoing emphasis on education, comprising of both IK and all knowledge pertaining to the new global economy and the opportunities it provides.

All aspects of the research are original. All data were collected by the author, and all grounded theoretical development was carried out by the author.

Near-field tsunamis provide short warning periods of equal to 30 minutes, which can complicate at-risk individuals’ protective action decisions. In the face of a tsunami, people may turn to individuals such as friends, family, neighbors, or organizations such as the media to obtain warning information to help facilitate evacuation and/or to seek protection from the hazard. To characterize norms for protection action behavior during a near-field tsunami, the purpose of this paper is to explore American Samoan residents’ perceptions of four social stakeholder groups on three characteristics – tsunami knowledge, trustworthiness, and protection responsibility – regarding the September 29, 2009, Mw 8.1 earthquake and tsunami in American Samoa.

The social stakeholder groups were the respondents themselves, their peers, officials, and media. Mean ratings revealed that respondents rated themselves highest for tsunami knowledge and protection against the tsunami but rated peers highest for trustworthiness. In addition, officials had the lowest mean rankings for all three stakeholder characteristics. MANOVA analyses found that there was a statistically significant overall effect for occupation status on respondents’ perceptions of the four stakeholder groups and characteristics.

Employed respondents generally reported higher mean ratings for all stakeholder groups across the three characteristics than those that reported not having an occupation. Given the complexity of evacuation behavior, at-risk individuals may seek the assistance of other community members to support their protective action decisions.

The information gathered from this study provides local emergency managers with useful data that could support future disaster resilience efforts for tsunamis.

THE first surprise when travelling by air from Fiji to Western Samoa is that one leaves Fiji on Saturday and arrives in Western Samoa on Friday. This is because of crossing the International Date Line en route and a story is told in Fiji of a man who owned a shop through which the date line ran. Sunday trading is frowned on in Fiji but our friend got round this by opening only half of his shop on Sunday—the half on the Saturday or Monday side of the date line. It is therefore not surprising that the Fiji Times describes itself as “the first newspaper in the world every day”.

Uses Kenneth Burke’s “dramatistic pentad” as an analytical framework to analyse a company event that in New Zealand became symbolic of social responsibility in action. Presents the event in which the staff of an Auckland food processing operation was flown to Western Samoa for a weekend “picnic”. Explores the act – what happened; the scene the physical, geographic and cultural milieu of the action; the agent – managing director Dick Hubbard’s individual identity and the role he played out in terms of the action; the agency – the means by which Hubbard was enabled to accomplish this action, and his role in initiating, approving and funding the staff picnic; and finally, the purpose – the intended effect of the action and a consideration of perceived outcomes. Considers the usefulness of the dramatistic pentad to other organisational contexts. Concludes that it provides a useful model to guide the analysis of diverse organisational texts.