Nupela Masta? Local and Expatriate Labour in a Chinese-Run Nickel Mine in Papua New Guinea 1

Abstract

Studies of mining projects in Papua New Guinea, since the development of the Panguna copper mine in Bougainville during the 1960s, have contributed to our understanding of the politics of interactions between resource companies, host governments and landowners. The Ramu Nickel mine, situated in northern Papua New Guinea, is China’s largest investment in the Pacific to date at US$1.4 billion. The project is managed by a state-owned enterprise, China Metallurgical Corporation, and financed by China ExIm Bank. This venture presents an opportunity to understand Chinese resource investment in a comparative perspective. While many issues, such as conflict over land, internal migration, and the limited involvement of the Papua New Guinean state, are constant, one aspect specific to Chinese resource investment is the use (or non-use) of host country labour, and the high proportion of Chinese labour employed at the mine sites. This practice differs from the relatively limited, short-term use of expatriate labour common to Western mining projects in developing countries. The attitudes and experiences of local and Chinese workers and managers will be examined to determine what is new in this approach to resource extraction.     

Foraging–Farming Transitions in Island Southeast Asia

The origins of agriculture have been debated by archaeologists for most of the discipline’s history, no more so than in Island Southeast Asia. The orthodox view is that Neolithic farmers spread south by sea from mainland China to Taiwan and thence to Island Southeast Asia, taking with them a new material culture and domestic rice and pigs and speaking the precursor of the Austronesian languages that are spoken in the region today. Opponents of this ‘farming/language dispersal’ theory have proposed models of acculturation, in which foragers acquired new material culture and food resources by trading with farmers. However, new work in archaeology, palaeoecology, palynology and anthropology, especially in Borneo, and in genetics and linguistics for the region as a whole, is suggesting that foraging/farming transitions in Southeast Asia were far more complex than either of these opposing ‘grand narratives’ of discontinuity (population colonisation) or continuity (acculturation) allows. Through the course of the Early/Mid-Holocene new material culture, technologies and foods were variously taken up, promoted or resisted in order to provision changes in the social and ideological constitution of societies. Whilst new readings of the data for foraging–farming transitions in the region vary, a consensus is emerging that it is more useful to focus on how materials and modes of life were used to underwrite changes in social networks than to seek to explain the archaeological record in terms of migrating farmers or acculturating foragers.     

A Popular Public Theology

Abstract

The article begins by exploring what is meant by a popular public theology drawing on the work of the missiologist Werner Ustorf. A popular public theology refers to the informal and unofficial theological speech of society, distinct from the more formal theology of the Church and academy. Such popular public theology is found in contemporary culture, albeit often in diffuse and incoherent form. It is then argued that a popular public theology has an inbuilt relevance to the concerns of society, avoids problems associated with public theologians needing to be fluent in more than one academic discourse, and is not in danger of being reliant on the social sciences. Finally, it is suggested that by discussing the implications of cultural theological statements, public theologians are able to contribute critically to social and political debates.     

Book reviews

Brian Girvin (ed.). The Transformation of Contemporary Conservatism. London: Sage Publications, 1988. 232pp. $10.95.

Ingrid Detter DeLupis. The Law of War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. xx + 411pp. $54.00.

Martin Shaw (ed.). War, State and Society. London: Macmillan, 1984. viii + 266pp. No price given.

Denis de Rougemont (translated by Anthony J.C. Kerr). The Future is Within Us. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1983. v + 244pp. No price given.

David Goldsworthy (ed.). Development Studies In Australia: Themes and Issues. Melbourne: Monash University, Development Studies Centre, Monograph No. 1, 1988. 203pp. $10.00.

Martin Walker. The Waking Giant: The Soviet Union Under Gorbachev. London: Abacus Books, 1987. xxvii + 315pp. $16.95.

Andrew Farran. Changing Directions in the Soviet Union?: Perestroika, Glasnost ... and Australia ?with particular reference to the Soviet Far East. Canberra: The Australian Institute of International Affairs, 1988. iv + 24pp. $6.00.

Eberhard Kolb (translated by P.S. Falla). The Weimar Republic. London: Unwin Hyman, 1988. xi + 237pp. $27.95.

Ian S. Lustick. For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1988. xi + 244pp. $11.95

Michael Mandelbaum. Israel and the Occupied Territories: A Personal Report on the Uprising. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1988. 20pp. No price given.

Robert A. Scalapino and Masataka Kosaka. Peace, Politics and Economics in Asia. London and Washington: Pergamon‐Brassey's, 1988. xiv + 209pp. No price given.

Hal Hill. Foreign Investment and Industrialisation in Indonesia. Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1988. xxi + 179pp. No price given.

Chelvadurai Manogaran. Ethnic Conflict and Reconcilitation in Sri Lanka. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987. xiv + 232pp. $US22.00.

C.K. Brown (ed.). Rural Development in Ghana. Accra: Ghana Universities Press, 1986. xii + 325pp. No price given.

Helen Fraser. New Caledonia: Anti‐Colonialism in a Pacific Territory. Peace Research Centre Monograph No. 2, Australian National University, 1988. 88pp. $10.00.

Susan K. Purcell (ed.). Mexico in Transition: Implications for U.S. Policy. Essays from Both Sides of the Border. New York: The Council on Foreign Relations, 1988. viii + 156pp. $US9.95.

James Ferguson, Papa Doc. Baby Doc: Haiti and the Duvaliers. Oxford, Basil Blackwell Inc., 1987. xi + 164pp. $39.95.     

Book reviews

Glen St J. Barclay. A Very Small Insurance Policy. The Politics of Australian Involvement in Vietnam. 1954–1967. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1988. 199pp. No price given.

Robert J. Cooksey. Review of Australia's Defence Exports and Defence Industry. Report to the Minister for Defence. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1986. x + 569pp. No price given.

Ernest McNamara, Robin Ward, Desmond Ball, J. O. Langtry and Richard Q. Agnew. Australia's Defence Resources: a compendium of data. Sydney. Pergamon Press Australia, 1986. 186pp. $ 16.

Jacob Bercovitch. Social Conflicts and Third Parties: Strategies of Conflict Resolution. Boulder. Westview Press, 1984. xv + 163pp. $US23.50.

Norman P. Barry. The New Right. London, New York and Sydney. Croom Helm, 1987. 205pp. $87.95.

Douglas E. Ashford. The Emergence of the Welfare States. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986. x+352pp. $87.50.

J.B. Ghartey. Crisis Accountability and Development in the Third World. The Case of Africa. Aldershot: Avebury, 1987. x + 170pp. $34.50.

Jan‐Erik Lane and Svante O. Ersonn. Politics and Society in Western Europe. London: Sage Publications, 1987. x + 370pp. £20.00 (cloth), £7.50 (paper).

John Toye. Dilemmas of Development: Reflections on the Counter‐Revolution in Development Theory and Policy. Oxford: Basil Black‐well, 1987. ix+ 177pp. $29.95.

Eva Kolinsky. Opposition in Western Europe. London and Sydney: Croom and Helm, 1987. 400pp. £29.95.

Allen Lynch. The Soviet Study of International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. xii+ 197pp. $90.00.

Uri Ra'anan, Francis Fukuyama, Mark Falcoff, Sam C. Sarkesian and Richard H. Shultz, Jr.. Third World Marxist‐Leninist Regimes: Strengths, Vulnerabilities, and U.S. Policy. Washington, D.C: Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, Inc., Pergamon‐Brassey's, 1985. xv + 130pp. No price given.

Helene Carrere d'Encausse. Big Brother: The Soviet Union and Soviet Europe. Translated by George Holoch. New York and London: Holmes and Meier, 1987. xii+332pp. $39.50 (cloth), $US24.50 (paper).

Ferenc Feher, Agnes Heller and Gyorgy Markus. Dictatorship Over Needs: An Analysis of Soviet Societies. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984. xii+312pp. $62.00 (cloth), $ 18.95 (paper).

Bruno Rizzi. The Bureaucratization of the World. The USSR: Bureaucratic Collectivism. London and New York: Tavistock Publications, 1985. viii +111 pp. No price given.

Stephen Fortescue. The Communist Party and Soviet Science. London: Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham/Macmillan, 1986. x+ 234pp. $77.00.

Colin Mackerras and Nick Knight (eds). Marxism In Asia. London & Sydney. Croom Helm, 1985. 297pp. £22.50.

Harry Harding. China's Second Revolution: Reform After Mao, Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1987. xx + 369pp. $US32.95 (cloth), $US12.95 (paper).

Jim Masselos (ed.). Struggling and Ruling: The Indian National Congress 1885–1985. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 1987. 224pp. Rs. 150.00.

Lawrence B. Krause, Koh Ai Tee and Lee (Tsao) Yuan. The Singapore Economy Reconsidered. Singapore: The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1987. 230pp. $S38.50 (cloth) $19.90 (paper).

Raj Vasil. Governing Singapore: Interviews with the new leaders. Singapore and Kuala Lumpur: Times Books International, 1980 (Revised Edition 1988). 247pp. $S28.50.

Martin Stuart‐Fox. Laos: Politics, Economics and Society. London: Francis Pinter, Boulder. Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc., 1986. xxiv +220pp. £22.50 (cloth), £7.95 (paper).

United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations. Transnational Corporations and the Electronics Industries oj ASEAN Economics. New York: ESCAP/UNCTC Joint Unit on Transnational Corporations, 1987. v+49pp. $7.50.

Stewart Firth. Nuclear Playground. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1987. xii +176pp. $14.95.

Lars Schoultz. National Security and United States Policy towards Latin America. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987. 337pp. $US42.50 (cloth), $US12.95 (paper).

Rose J. Spalding (ed.). The Political Economy of Revolutionary Nicaragua. Sydney. Allen and Unwin, 1987. 255pp. $87.50 (cloth), $34.95 (paper).

Abby L. Bloom (ed.). Primary Health Care. Australian Council for Overseas Aid, Development Dossier No. 20. Canberra: ACFOA, 1987.iv+80pp.$5.00.     

Building blocks of polycentric governance

Success or failure of a polycentric system is a function of complex political and social processes, such as coordination between actors and venues to solve specialized policy problems. Yet there is currently no accepted method for isolating distinct processes of coordination, nor to understand how their variance affects polycentric governance performance. We develop and test a building-blocks approach that uses different patterns or “motifs” for measuring and comparing coordination longitudinally on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Our approach confirms that polycentric governance comprises an evolving substrate of interdependent venues and actors over time. However, while issue specialization and actor participation can be improved through the mobilization of venues, such a strategy can also fragment overall polycentric capacity to resolve conflict and adapt to new problems. A building-blocks approach advances understanding and practice of polycentric governance by enabling sharper diagnosis of internal dynamics in complex environmental governance systems.     

Kakadu National Park World Heritage Site: Deconstructing the Debate, 1997–2003

The case of Kakadu National Park has had an unusually large amount of time and expense devoted to it in meetings of the World Heritage Bureau and the World Heritage Committee since 1997. Major controversy arose following the announcement that a new uranium mine would be developed at Jabiluka, located in an enclave surrounded by the World Heritage property, but not legally part of it. The explosive juxtaposition of issues concerning the trio of conservation of heritage values, uranium mining, and Aboriginal land rights inevitably led to strong reactions against the Federal Government's decision to allow mining, not least on the part of Australian and international non‐government organisations. It was felt that the mining development would jeopardise the integrity of the key values for which Kakadu had been inscribed on the World Heritage List. This paper attempts to unravel some of the strands of the ensuing debate — to at least begin to deconstruct the debate — that saw Kakadu almost placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger. This is an important task to attempt because there were many undercurrents to the publicly reported debate, and a large degree of ‘reading between the lines’ is needed to interpret official records of meetings adequately. The paper also attempts to throw some light on the forceful opposition to such a move on the part of the Australian Government, based in large part on its underlying developmentalist philosophy, and at a time when it was giving less than wholehearted support to many international agreements to which Australia is a signatory. Finally, it is hoped that an insight into the workings of the World Heritage Convention and its supporting bodies will be gained.     

Underwater Excavation at Ederline Crannog, Loch Awe, Argyll, Scotland

A trial excavation was carried out on the near-submerged crannog at Ederline Boathouse, Loch Awe, in July 2004. A trench measuring 3 × 5 m was opened on the northern side, in c .3 m of water. Around 1 m of organic deposits was encountered, along with structural timbers and animal bones. Despite a previous 4th century BC radiocarbon determination from a structural timber, a sherd of E ware from a sealed context gives an Early Historic date for the deposits excavated in 2004. The results from this first intrusive investigation of a Loch Awe crannog demonstrate that these sites are complex and long-lived.
© 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society