The book is a critical examination of affirmative action, a form of preferential development often used to address the situation of disadvantaged groups. It uses a trans-global approach, as opposed ...to the comparative approach, to examine the relationship between affirmative action, ethnic conflict and the role of the state in Fiji, Malaysia and South Africa. While affirmative action has noble goals, there are often intervening political and ideological factors in the form of ethno-nationalism and elite interests, amongst others, which potentially undermine fair distribution of affirmative action resources. The book examines the affirmative action philosophies and programs of the three countries and raises pertinent questions about whether affirmative action has led to equality, social justice, harmony and political stability and explores future possibilities. “Steven Ratuva provides a brilliant critical study, not just of affirmative action policy and practice in three very different postcolonial contexts, but of the very complex matters of principle, justification and ideology that are involved more generally. It is an invaluable contribution to the literature on this important topic.” - Dr Stephanie Lawson, Professor of Politics and International Relations, Macquarie University. “Scholarly and provocative, Steven Ratuva’s Politics of Preferential Development is an original and insightful comparative contribution to the growing literature on affirmative action around the world.” - Dr Ralph Premdas, Professor of Public Policy, University of West Indies; Former Professor, University of California Berkeley and University of Toronto.
This book analyzes the schisms throughout the Cayman Islands to identify who or what is considered a Caymanian. Caymanian traditions have all but been eclipsed, often due to overpowering cultural ...sensibilities. Williams investigates the pervasive effects of globalization, multiculturalism, economics, and xenophobia on indigenous Caymanian culture.
The postcolonial states of Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu operate today in a global arena in which human rights are widely accepted. As ratifiers of UN treaties such as the Convention on the ...Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, these Pacific Island countries have committed to promoting women’s and girls’ rights, including the right to a life free of violence. Yet local, national and regional gender values are not always consistent with the principles of gender equality and women’s rights that undergird these globalising conventions. This volume critically interrogates the relation between gender violence and human rights as these three countries and their communities and citizens engage with, appropriate, modify and at times resist human rights principles and their implications for gender violence. Grounded in extensive anthropological, historical and legal research, the volume should prove a crucial resource for the many scholars, policymakers and activists who are concerned about the urgent and ubiquitous problem of gender violence in the western Pacific.
The Historical Dictionary of Fiji contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on important ...personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Fiji.
The September 2014 elections in Fiji was one of the most anticipated in the history of the country, coming after eight years of military rule and under a radically new constitution that introduced a ...system of proportional representative (PR) and without any reserved communal seats. The election was won overwhelmingly by FijiFirst, a party formed by 2006 coup leader Frank Bainimarama. He subsequently embarked on a process of shifting the political configuration of Fijian politics from inter-ethnic to trans-ethnic mobilisation. The shift has not been easy in terms of changing people’s perceptions and may face some challenges in the longer term, despite Bainimarama’s clear victory in the polls. Ethnic consciousness has the capacity to become re‑articulated in different forms and to seek new opportunities for expression. This book explores these and other issues surrounding the 2014 Fiji elections in a collection of articles written from varied political, intellectual and ideological positions.
This book analyses the problematics of archaeological heritage management in the Canary Islands, which are echoed in other parts of the world where the indigenous heritage is under-represented. The ...present-day management of Canarian archaeological heritage has a very specific and unusual context given that the archipelago is located on the fringes of Europe, belonging to Spain and therefore to the European Unión, but geographically and in terms of early history being part of Africa. From a theoretical perspective, then, the proposed book analyzes issues such as the effects of colonialism and eurocentrism on the management of the archaeological heritage. It also examines the evolutionist and historico-cultural models used to analyze past societies and, ultimately, used to create identities that influence archaeological heritage management itself.
From a practical point of view, the book presents a proposal for enhancing the archaeological heritage of the Canary Islands through the creation of archaeological parks (providing some concrete examples in the case of the city of La Laguna) and the active involvement of the local community. Parallel to this, the book considers the Canarian Archipelago as part of a problematic that is not unique to this area but is an example of poor indigenous heritage management overall. It demonstrates how the course of history and the politics of the past still have an excessive influence on the way in which the present-day archaeological heritage is interpreted and managed.
Therefore, this book provides an almost unique opportunity for uncovering the history of archaeology within the margins of Europe (in fact, in an African region) and exploring colonial and foreign influences. In many ways it is a mirror of archaeological mainstreams and an exercise in (re)thinking the aim and status of present-day archaeology.
Dr Parke’s monograph examines how Fijians, especially in western areas of Fiji, currently understand and explain the origins and development of the social and political divisions of late pre-colonial ...traditional Fijian society. It assesses the reasoning, consistency and, where possible, the historical accuracy of such understandings. The oral history research which forms the backbone of the study was conducted in either standard Fijian or one or other of the western Fijian dialects with which Dr Parke was familiar. The period on which the monograph concentrates is the two centuries or so immediately prior to the Deed of Cession on 10 October 1874. A number of the major chiefs of Fiji had offered to cede Fiji to Queen Victoria; and after the offer had been accepted, Fiji became a British Crown Colony on that day. The volume will be of interest to all archaeologists, anthropologists and historians with an interest in Fiji. It will also be of wider interest to Pacific Studies scholars and those of British colonial history as well as historians with a wider interest in indigenous traditional histories and their role in governance today.
This private sector assessment reviews Fiji's private sector environment in 2006-2012, against recommendations made in the Asian Development Bank (ADB) publication "2005 Promise Unfulfilled: Private ...Sector Assessment for Fiji". While Fiji has made considerable reform progress in a number of areas (including tax reforms, encouraging telecommunications competition, and reducing barriers to foreign investment), it still faces considerable challenges in responding to a range of macroeconomic shocks following the global economic crisis, and political and policy uncertainty at home.
Through Dr Lal’s refreshingly clear and powerful prose and sharply observed stories, we enter the inner world of Indo-Fijian feeling and aspiration. One universal that emerges with particular clarity ...in the Indo-Fijian experience is the ceaseless struggle to find community in a changing world, balancing the beauty of ritual and tradition against the transcendent value of education and modern rationality. The volume poses the question of how people draw upon historical memory and immediate circumstances to create a social world, and how that world can be shared with others in multicultural society. The answer seems to lie somewhere between history and poetry, as in Dr Lal’s ‘factions.’ Andrew Arno University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu
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