David Hanlon – författare

Long known for its vast geographic and cultural diversity, the Pacific Islands region today is witness to some of the most dramatic histories of decolonization and postcolonial development anywhere in the world. As new nations emerge_and struggle to emerge_political change is everywhere marked by efforts to reconceptualize identities, histories, and futures. In the midst of these transformations, this volume brings together a diverse range of analysis and commentary that challenge tired and simplistic paradigms of Oarea studyO and urge us to rethink the ways we imagine and represent the Pacific. The essays also challenge the conventions of scholarship itself, offering provocative reflections on the politics and ethics of research and writing across disciplines. The authors examine a range of subjects relevant to formations of cultural and regional identity, including the politics and poetics of history, of tradition, and of cultural expressions in literature, film, and the arts. In doing so, their discussions open up new ways of thinking about the Pacific as well as about relations between tradition and modernity, and about processes of Omodernization O and globalization everywhere.

The Carolina, Mariana and Marshall Islands have experienced world war, atomic weapons testing and varying brands of colonialism in the 20th century. Following the seizure of the islands from Japan, agencies of the US government sought to better possess and control the area through a series of developmental initiatives. Interdisciplinary in its approach, this text goes beyond the liberal discourse surrounding modernity to examine what economic development actually entailed. It explores in ethnographic terms how different groups of island people responded to development programmes in multiple, complex, layered and sometimes conflicting ways that reflected their own historical experiences and cultural understandings.

The Carolina, Mariana and Marshall Islands have experienced world war, atomic weapons testing and varying brands of colonialism in the 20th century. Following the seizure of the islands from Japan, agencies of the US government sought to better possess and control the area through a series of developmental initiatives. Interdisciplinary in its approach, this text goes beyond the liberal discourse surrounding modernity to examine what economic development actually entailed. It explores in ethnographic terms how different groups of island people responded to development programmes in multiple, complex, layered and sometimes conflicting ways that reflected their own historical experiences and cultural understandings.