Toon van Meijl – författare

This book provides a critical analysis of the widespread assumption that the formalisation and standardisation of property rights through state legislation has a positive impact on economic development. It is based on anthropological case studies of land and natural resource rights in Southeast Asia and Oceania. These suggest that the economic impact of the formalisation of property rights is not necessarily positive, certainly not for all categories of peoples. They also suggest that state reform of property rights do not necessarily eliminate the conditions of legal pluralism, but rather add new legal structures to an already complex constellation of property rights and duties. The point of departure for the empirical analyses of the central hypothesis examined in this book is that the practical significance of complex forms of property rights and related socio-economic practices cannot be usefully examined within formalistic, one-dimensional and normatively oriented legalistic or economic approaches. Instead, an anthropoligical approach to law is advocated in order to analyse the complicated, multi-dimensional relationships between property rights and economic development, and their embeddedness in social practice. Based on this approach, the contributions to this book show how different people and institutions attribute different meanings to the various components of property relationships, and how they use them as resources in their everyday lives and social struggles.

First Published in 1999. This book provides a critical analysis of the widespread assumption that the formalisation and standardisation of property rights through state legislation has a positive impact on economic development. It is based on anthropological case studies of land and natural resource rights in Southeast Asia and Oceania. These suggest that the economic impact of the formalisation of property rights is not necessarily positive, certainly not for all categories of peoples. They also suggest that state reform of property rights do not necessarily eliminate the conditions of legal pluralism, but rather add new legal structures to an already complex constellation of property rights and duties. The point of departure for the empirical analyses of the central hypothesis examined in this book is that the practical significance of complex forms of property rights and related socio-economic practices cannot be usefully examined within formalistic, one-dimensional and normatively oriented legalistic or economic approaches. Instead, an anthropoligical approach to law is advocated in order to analyse the complicated, multi-dimensional relationships between property rights and economic development, and their embeddedness in social practice. Based on this approach, the contributions to this book show how different people and institutions attribute different meanings to the various components of property relationships, and how they use them as resources in their everyday lives and social struggles.

First Published in 1999. This book provides a critical analysis of the widespread assumption that the formalisation and standardisation of property rights through state legislation has a positive impact on economic development. It is based on anthropological case studies of land and natural resource rights in Southeast Asia and Oceania. These suggest that the economic impact of the formalisation of property rights is not necessarily positive, certainly not for all categories of peoples. They also suggest that state reform of property rights do not necessarily eliminate the conditions of legal pluralism, but rather add new legal structures to an already complex constellation of property rights and duties. The point of departure for the empirical analyses of the central hypothesis examined in this book is that the practical significance of complex forms of property rights and related socio-economic practices cannot be usefully examined within formalistic, one-dimensional and normatively oriented legalistic or economic approaches. Instead, an anthropoligical approach to law is advocated in order to analyse the complicated, multi-dimensional relationships between property rights and economic development, and their embeddedness in social practice. Based on this approach, the contributions to this book show how different people and institutions attribute different meanings to the various components of property relationships, and how they use them as resources in their everyday lives and social struggles.

First Published in 1999. This book provides a critical analysis of the widespread assumption that the formalisation and standardisation of property rights through state legislation has a positive impact on economic development. It is based on anthropological case studies of land and natural resource rights in Southeast Asia and Oceania. These suggest that the economic impact of the formalisation of property rights is not necessarily positive, certainly not for all categories of peoples. They also suggest that state reform of property rights do not necessarily eliminate the conditions of legal pluralism, but rather add new legal structures to an already complex constellation of property rights and duties. The point of departure for the empirical analyses of the central hypothesis examined in this book is that the practical significance of complex forms of property rights and related socio-economic practices cannot be usefully examined within formalistic, one-dimensional and normatively oriented legalistic or economic approaches. Instead, an anthropoligical approach to law is advocated in order to analyse the complicated, multi-dimensional relationships between property rights and economic development, and their embeddedness in social practice. Based on this approach, the contributions to this book show how different people and institutions attribute different meanings to the various components of property relationships, and how they use them as resources in their everyday lives and social struggles.

Ethnographic case studies explore what it means to “belong” in Oceania, as contributors consider ongoing formations of place, self and community in connection with travelling, internal and international migration. The chapters apply the multi-dimensional concepts of movement, place-making and cultural identifications to explain contemporary life in Oceanic societies. The volume closes by suggesting that constructions of multiple belongings—and, with these, the relevant forms of mobility, place-making and identifications—are being recontextualized and modified by emerging discourses of climate change and sea-level rise.

This book examines how identities emerge, persist and change in various Pacific societies. The shifting images of identity are explored in pre-colonial, colonial as well as post-colonial circumstances. All the essays in this volume address both continuity and discontinuity in the construction of identities in the rapidly changing Pacific region. A region increasingly characterized by state-formation processes and global influences.The introduction provides a theoretical analysis of the changing paradigm in the study of identity over recent decades. This is exemplified with a comparative overview of the emergence of a constructivist approach of culture, tradition and identity in Pacific studies. Nine ethnographic contributions subsequently address the central question from a variety of different angles. Some chapters focus on classic topics such as migration and myth, while others deal with indigenous peoples in modern nation-states, tourism, economic development, global consumerism or electronic communication. The societies in question range from relatively isolated groups to communities living dispersed around the globe. Each chapter provides valuable insights into the processes of identity in the Pacific over time. An epilogue provides a comparative reading of the different theoretical solutions that have been proposed to make sense of the shifting images of identity in the contemporary, increasingly transnational Pacific.