Sustainable Communities, Sustainable Development: Other Pathways for Papua New Guinea

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Sustainable Communities, Sustainable Development: Other Pathways for Papua New Guinea See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265162446 Sustainable Communities, Sustainable Development: Other Pathways for Papua New Guinea Book · January 2012 CITATIONS READS 23 587 4 authors, including: Paul James Victoria Stead Western Sydney University Deakin University 62 PUBLICATIONS 1,329 CITATIONS 37 PUBLICATIONS 62 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Antarctic Cities and the Global Commons: Rethinking the Gateways View project Circles of Sustainability; Circles of Social Life View project All content following this page was uploaded by Paul James on 29 August 2014. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Writing Past Colonialism is the signature book series of the Institute of Postcolonial Studies, based in Melbourne, Australia. By postcolonialism we understand modes of writing and artistic production that critically engage with and contest the legacy and continuing mindset and practices of colonialism, and inform debate about the processes of globalization. This manifests itself in a concern with difference from the Euro-American, the global, and the norm. The series is also committed to publishing works that seek “to make a difference,” both in the academy and outside it. our hope is that books in the series will • engage with contemporary issues and problems relating to colonialism and postcolonialism • attempt to reach a broad constituency of readers • address the relation between theory and practice • be interdisciplinary in approach as well as subject matter • experiment with new modes of writing and methodology INSTITUTE OF POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES | WRITING PAST COLONIALISM Selves in Question: Interviews on Southern African Auto/biography Edited by Judith Lütge Coullie, Stephan Meyer, Thengani Ngwenya, and Thomas Olver Boundary Writing: An Exploration of Race, Culture, and Gender Binaries in Contemporary Australia Edited by Lynette Russell Postcolonizing the International: Working to Change the Way We Are Edited by Phillip Darby Dark Writing: Geography, Performance, Design Paul Carter Hidden Hands and Divided Landscapes: A Penal History of Singapore’s Plural Society Anoma Pieris Imperial Archipelago: Representation and Rule in the Insular Territories under U.S. Dominion after 1898 Lanny Thompson Mediating across Difference: Oceanic and Asian Approaches to Conflict Resolution Edited by Morgan Brigg and Roland Bleiker Out of Bounds: Anglo-Indian Literature and the Geography of Displacement Alan Johnson Sustainable Communities, Sustainable Development: Other Paths for Papua New Guinea Paul James, Yaso Nadarajah, Karen Haive, and Victoria Stead 2 sustainable communities, sustainable development OTHER PATHS FOR PAPUA NEW GUINEA Paul James, Yaso Nadarajah, Karen Haive, and Victoria Stead with Albert Age, Peter Annear, Sama Arua, Kelly Donati, Jean Eparo, Beno Erepan, Julie Foster-Smith, Zarnaz Fouladi, Betty Gali-Malpo, Damian Grenfell, Elizabeth Kath, Andrew Kedu, Paul Komesaroff, Leo Kulumbu, Ronnie Mamia, Lita Mugugia, Martin Mulligan, Gibson Oeka, Jalal Paraha, Peter Phipps, Leonie Rakanangu, Isabel Salatiel, Chris Scanlon, Helen Smith, Sabine Spohn, Pou Toivita, Kema Vegala, Naup Waup, Mollie Willie, and Joe Yomba University of Hawai‘i Press Honolulu © 2012 University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 17 16 15 14 13 12 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources. Series design by Leslie Fitch Printed by For Strongim Pipol Contents Note on Authors ix Preface and Acknowledgments xi I Communities in Context 1 Chapter 1. Postcolonial Development and Sustainability 2 Chapter 2. Engaged Theory and Social Mapping 32 Chapter 3. Situating Communities 58 II Communities in Place 91 Chapter 4. Urban and Periurban Communities 92 Chapter 5. Hinterland Communities 136 Chapter 6. Remote Communities 181 III Community Development 213 Chapter 7. Informal Economies and Community Livelihoods 214 Chapter 8. Microfinance and Community Development 242 Chapter 9. Health and Community Equity 275 Chapter 10. HIV/AIDS and Community Context 301 IV Community Learning 333 Chapter 11. Learning beyond Formal Education 334 Chapter 12. Learning Centers for Sustainable Living 364 Chapter 13. Recommendations for Community Learning 390 Appendix: Project Partnerships and Coordination 399 Bibliography 401 Index 441 NOTE on AUTHORS paul james is Director of the Global Cities Institute, RMIT University, and author or editor of twenty-four books including Globalism, Nationalism, Tribal- ism (2006). yaso nadarajah is a Senior Fellow in the Globalism Research Centre, RMIT University. victoria stead is a Ph.D. student in the Human Security Program, RMIT University. karen haive is former Assistant Deputy Secretary in the Department for Com- munity Development, Papua New Guinea. ix Preface AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book comes out of a much larger project of global ethnography conducted in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, and else- where.1 It emphasizes three major themes: community sustainability, commu- nity livelihoods, and community learning. Our overriding concern is to map the complex intersection—the tensions, both destructive and creative—of ontologi- cally different formations as they work in and through each other in the contem- porary globalizing world. The long-term objective of this ongoing project is to contribute broadly to social sustainability—culturally, politically, economically, and ecologically. More particularly, here in Papua New Guinea, we focused on ways of sup- porting and building the base-level foundations for enhancing the resilience and vibrancy of communities under threat.2 In effect, we wanted to rewrite the mainstream development literature by emphasizing the possibilities for revital- izing nonformal economies, restructuring health practices, and providing alter- native pathways to community development through informal learning. One of the core strategies suggested by the research involves drawing on the existing strengths of communities and working in partnership with government and civil society organizations to create networks of community learning centers. The book is one outcome of a long-term, collaborative research partnership between a team of academic researchers and the national Department for Com- munity Development in Papua New Guinea (DFCD), a partnership that from the outset aimed to contribute toward the development of a new, national policy for strengthening and enhancing local communities and local livelihoods in a country of extraordinary diversity and contradiction. The publication of this vol- ume marks the end of the first stage of a research engagement that is far from complete. Most pointedly, the project provided background research to support the development of an ongoing policy framework for community development in Papua New Guinea. The project was set within a community-engaged research framework to finalize the DFCD’s community development policies. It involved a consultative process across local, provincial, and national levels. In local com- munities throughout Papua New Guinea a community-consultation process xi xii preface and acknowledgments provided the basis for our research. Our research framework meant, for exam- ple, paying careful attention to the protocol of Organic Law while we waited for a letter to get off a provincial desk and into the hands of a district liaison officer. It meant waiting in a pressing crowd to get on an overnight boat to a distant is- land because our flight booking had not worked. It meant explicitly confronting embarrassing questions of monetary compensation, power broking, and gender inequities. The research rarely went in the way that we first intended, and it was never without initial setbacks, failures, and problems, but it was always conducted with committed care. There have been many interconnected parts to the Papua New Guinea (PNG) project—from local research training to writing a series of government reports. Perhaps most significant, drawing upon field research in local com- munities and on policy work done in the Department for Community Sustain- Karen Haive, Department for Community Development preface and acknowledgments xiii ability by Karen Haive, Marian Jacka, Mollie Willie, and others, we worked to draft the Integrated Policy for Community Development for circulation to the provincial ministers, chairs, and advisors in preparation for the First National Ministerial Forum in October 2006. The eighth draft was completed in late 2006, with the final version of the policy document accepted by the Parliament as policy in early 2007. During the same period, community mapping was initi- ated in eleven locations comprising about forty villages across four provinces of Papua New Guinea—Central, Morobe, Madang, and Milne Bay. We subse- quently documented the roll-out of the district focal points in a series of further places: Vanimo-Green District (Sandaun Province), Bialla District (West New Britain Province), Madang Town District (Madang Province), Wosera Gawi Dis- trict (East Sepik Province), Rigo District and Moresby South (Central Province), Pomio District (East New Britain), and Sohe District (Oro Province), although this was done with much less
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