Microstoria,Pacific History,and the Question of Scale: Two or Three Things That We Should Know About Them

This article is prompted by the recent debate on the so-called crisis in the humanities, and the related call for historians to change direction by returning to history of the longue durée. While pointing out that the ‘crisis’ is more influenced by the changing political economy of the tertiary education sector than by specific historiographical practices, I suggest that small-scale analysis remains compatible with global history approaches. Articulating a parallel examination of Pacific historiography and the Italian variant of microhistory, the article argues that the latter provides fertile stimuli for Pacific history. In particular, I maintain that integrating social analysis can serve to counterbalance the over-emphasis on cultural aspects found in much Pacific historiography.     

Global Intersections: US Whalers and Voyagers and Australasia

The focus of this article is the way in which United States (US) whalers, and other Pacific voyagers, helped to consolidate an increasingly globalized understanding of the world ? with implications for both the US itself and Australasia. The US globalizing enterprises also resulted in greater contact between Europeans and a diverse range of peoples within the Pacific, which encompassed Australian Aborigines and Polynesians. Linking the US and Australia and their globalizing enterprises was a sense of a common culture and origins, along with a shared justification for Pacific expansionism based on Enlightenment conceptions of the promotion of progress.     

The End of Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (2003–17)

The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) ended in June 2017 after 14 years. It was an initiative of the Pacific Islands Forum authorized under the Biketawa Declaration of 2000, which enabled a regional response to crises in the region. Between 1998 and 2003, Solomon Islands had undergone a period usually called the ‘tenson’ in Solomons Pijin, or the ‘Tension’ or ‘Ethnic Tension’ in English, when government processes failed and two rival militia groups out of Malaita and Guadalcanal terrorized Honiara and its surrounds. Prime Minister Ulufa‘alu was removed in a de facto coup in 2000. Although all Pacific Islands Forum nations participated, Australia paid 95 per cent of the costs. This was the first time Australia and New Zealand had led a substantial intervention mission beyond their borders that was not under United Nations auspices. The article places Solomon Islands politics and governance issues into a 20-year perspective and examines the success and failures of RAMSI, which was far more adaptable than is usually admitted. The article also considers the appropriateness of the Westminster system to government in Solomon Islands.     

Children and young people as co-researchers – researching subjective well-being in residential area with visual and verbal methods

In this article, we focus on child perspective methodology when co-researching well-being with children and young people. The paper explores how to produce and analyse data produced with children and young people, and how to further develop the method of co-researching with them? We combined visual and verbal methods by using photo elicitation interviews (N?=?16) and drawing group discussions (N?=?49) to study the subjective well-being of 2–16-year-olds in their residential areas. We found out that by combining two methods it is possible to achieve a wider view of children’s subjective well-being. However, we must be aware that well-being is a complex entity and that there are barriers to use child perspective methods. Co-researching requires situationality, reciprocity and the researcher’s willingness to hear the perspectives of children.     

21世纪的太平洋——在政治、经济、军事上的重要性评价

太平洋是地球上最大的海洋,在环太平洋沿岸和浩瀚海洋中星罗棋布的岛屿上,分布着40个国家和一些尚未独立的地区,太平洋地区国家陆地面积占世界的46%,人口占世界的40%,但却拥有全球50%以上的GNP和近1/2的世界贸易总额。二次大战以后,太平洋地区的迅速崛起,引起国际舆论的广泛关注。21世纪是太平洋世纪,已日益被国际社会所公认。本文立足于政治军事地理及地缘政治学的基本理论,以21世纪是太平洋世纪的基本结论为出发点,从资源、经济、政治、军事等四个方面对太平洋在21世纪的重要性进行了系统地分析与评价。指出太平洋不仅是人类有待开发的巨大资源宝库和全球经济最富有活力的地区而且是21世纪全球地缘政治中心和地缘战略中心,是世界上各大国和大国集团矛盾的焦点,以及军费增长最快和军备最密集的地区。在今后相当长一段时期内,围绕太平洋地区控制权的争夺竟会日趋激烈。因此21世纪的世界是走向和平还是步入战争,关键取决于环太平洋地区各种战略力量的矛盾与合作。     

清华国学研究院的学术建制及治学精神

清华国学研究院(1925-1929),是在"整理国故"运动中涌现的一个著名学术机构。与同时期其他国学机构相比,清华国学研究院既有援引西学,重建现代学术体系的一面;又有继承儒家教育理想与治学路径,结合西方知识工具,致力于阐发传统学术之特质的一面。因此,清华国学研究院的学术建制,学术社群的治学精神,皆有其鲜明的特性。     

Aborigines,Islanders and Hula Girls in Great Barrier Reef Tourism

ABSTRACT

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the world's premier tourist destinations. It is promoted and marketed to tourists as part of an idealised Pacific island paradise. While the gardens and decor of island resorts mimic those of resorts elsewhere in the Pacific, the way in which Indigenous people are represented is markedly different. This paper presents an analysis of historic tourist ephemera to suggest that Australian Aboriginal people are largely invisible at the Great Barrier Reef, despite their role in establishing the tourism industry. It suggests that ambiguities of Aboriginal presence, in labour and performance, are a product of tourism ideals and colonial race relations.     

Scholars at War: Australasian social scientists, 1939–1945

ABSTRACT

In 1858, a scandal rocked Sydney – the captain and the owner of the Sydney-based barque Sutton were accused of kidnapping 65 Pacific Islanders to sell to sugar planters on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion. While Dorothy Shineberg highlighted this incident in a 1984 publication, she based her story on official documents located in the French and British archives and, understandably, largely portrayed it as a diplomatic dispute between the colonial powers. This paper revisits this notorious yet little known episode, taking into account the press coverage the affair received in Australia as well as the archival correspondence. It repositions the narrative in the complex colonial space of Sydney, where culpability was very much tied to local politics, class and notions of nationality. Set against the backdrop of the British anti-slavery laws, it considers the implications of this affair on future recruiting ventures in the region, including the introduction of indentured labour to Australia in 1863.     

Providing University Education in Physical Geography Across the South Pacific Islands: Multi-modal Course Delivery and Student Grade Performance

Enormous distances across the vast South Pacific hinder student access to the main Fiji campus of the regional tertiary education provider, the University of the South Pacific (USP). Fortunately, USP has been a pioneer in distance education (DE) and promotes multi-modal delivery of programmes. Geography has embraced DE, but doubts remain about comparability of various modes of study. This paper offers a diachronic examination of final grade performance of undergraduate physical geography students learning via three different modes. Data collected over 10 years on the pass rates of >1300 students are analysed. Various influences on student achievement are highlighted.