Back to basics: towards integrated social protection for vulnerable groups in Vanuatu

The impact of the recent global economic crisis on vulnerable populations around the world led to an increased focus on social protection systems in developing countries. This article argues that the availability of both formal and informal social protection systems provides potential for an integrated approach to mitigating social risks for developing societies such as Vanuatu. The ranking of Pacific island countries on the global Social Protection Index (SPI), which measures levels of formal social protection, does not take into consideration the existence of informal social protection systems that are community and culture-based and more extensive in reach. Formal social protection systems are very limited in reach in Vanuatu and even urban employees who have access to them still rely on informal mechanisms. The dynamic engagement between the customary and market sectors makes an integrated social protection approach relevant

The politics of the media: A cynical synopsis

"The power of the pen (or keyboard nowadays) can be used to inflame conflict, justify evil, create goodness, undermine political power, 'murder' as well as destroy; inform as well as misinform. Journalists compete to master these set of social and moral dichotomies for diverse reasons: to please their bossess and thus ensure easy social mobility up the busy corporate laddar; make their stories marketable and generate public legitimacy; make a political point or two; or simply to 'survive'. This complex interplay of social and ethical dichotomies provide the basis for media politics and thus the environment within which journalists 'survive' and sometimes 'die'.&nbsp

Critical Fiji media studies defy climate of censorship: Review of Media and Democracy in Fiji, edited by Shailendra Singh and Biman Prasad. Suva: Fijian Studies: A Journal of Contemporary Fiji (2008/9). 6 (Nos. 1 and 2)

The special edition on ‘Media and Democracy in Fiji’ of Fijian Studies: A Journal of Contemporary Fiji is an engaging collection of articles of diverse quality presented in varying degrees of intellectual temperaments, some with political passion and unrestrained emotion, some with journalistic vigour and some with serious scholastic zeal. A few articles are outstanding in terms of analytical depth and cutting edge approach while some are lacklustre and lack what it takes to be a journal article. Nevertheless, the intensity of discourse relating to the media in Fiji and the Pacific is enough to inspire one’s sense of appreciation of the role the media and journalists who operate in politically challenging environments like Fiji play. (The last such collection was ‘crisis in coverage’ published after the George Speight attempted coup, May, 2000)

Vakatorocaketaki ni taukei: the politics of affirmative action in post colonial Fiji

This article examines the relationship between affirmative action and regime change in Fiji—in particular, how affirmative action has been used as a tool of social engineering. It argues that affirmative action is more than an ordinary policy prescription; rather, it has fundamental social engineering and restructuring intent, based on political and ideological considerations. Changes in the affirmative action programs have been associated with changes in the interests of the ruling élites, and, since independence, there have been shifts in emphasis and strategies resulting from the interests of the élites. Many affirmative action programs have led to failure and loss of state resources. Since the military coup in 2006, most of the affirmative action programs associated with past regimes have been removed, including through the dramatic control and then weakening of the indigenous Fijian middle class, which benefited from past affirmative action policies. Paradoxically, under the rubric of ‘rural development’, the interim government has reinvented affirmative action, but it is now targeted at poor rural villagers and shuns the middle class

Politics of Preferential Development: Trans-global study of affirmative action and ethnic conflict in Fiji, Malaysia and South Africa

The book is a critical examination of affirmative action, a form of preferential development often used to address the situation of disadvantaged groups. It uses a trans-global approach, as opposed to the comparative approach, to examine the relationship between affirmative action, ethnic conflict and the role of the state in Fiji, Malaysia and South Africa. While affirmative action has noble goals, there are often intervening political and ideological factors in the form of ethno-nationalism and elite interests, amongst others, which potentially undermine fair distribution of affirmative action resources. The book examines the affirmative action philosophies and programs of the three countries and raises pertinent questions about whether affirmative action has led to equality, social justice, harmony and political stability and explores future possibilities. “Steven Ratuva provides a brilliant critical study, not just of affirmative action policy and practice in three very different postcolonial contexts, but of the very complex matters of principle, justification and ideology that are involved more generally. It is an invaluable contribution to the literature on this important topic.” - Dr Stephanie Lawson, Professor of Politics and International Relations, Macquarie University. “Scholarly and provocative, Steven Ratuva’s Politics of Preferential Development is an original and insightful comparative contribution to the growing literature on affirmative action around the world.” - Dr Ralph Premdas, Professor of Public Policy, University of West Indies; Former Professor, University of California Berkeley and University of Toronto

Contested Terrain

Contested Terrain provides a cutting-edge, comprehensive and innovative approach to critically analysing the multidimensional and contested nature of security narratives, justified by different ideological, political, cultural and economic rationales. This is important in a complex and ever-changing situation involving a dynamic interplay between local, regional and global factors. Security narratives are constructed in multiple ways and are used to frame our responses to the challenges and threats to our sense of safety, wellbeing, identity and survival but how the narratives are constructed is a matter of intellectual and political contestation. Using three case studies from the Pacific (Fiji, Tonga and Solomon Islands), Contested Terrain shows the different security challenges facing each country, which result from their unique historical, political and socio-cultural circumstances. Contrary to the view that the Pacific is a generic entity with common security issues, this book argues for more localised and nuanced approaches to security framing and analysis

The People Have Spoken: The 2014 Elections in Fiji

The September 2014 elections in Fiji was one of the most anticipated in the history of the country, coming after eight years of military rule and under a radically new constitution that introduced a system of proportional representative (PR) and without any reserved communal seats. The election was won overwhelmingly by FijiFirst, a party formed by 2006 coup leader Frank Bainimarama. He subsequently embarked on a process of shifting the political configuration of Fijian politics from inter-ethnic to trans-ethnic mobilisation. The shift has not been easy in terms of changing people’s perceptions and may face some challenges in the longer term, despite Bainimarama’s clear victory in the polls. Ethnic consciousness has the capacity to become re‑articulated in different forms and to seek new opportunities for expression. This book explores these and other issues surrounding the 2014 Fiji elections in a collection of articles written from varied political, intellectual and ideological positions

‘Failed’ or resilient subaltern communities? Pacific indigenous social protection systems in a neoliberal world

The notion of failed state is based on culturally, historically and ideologically slanted lenses and tends to rank post-colonial societies at the lower end of the Failed State Index (FSI). Likewise, the Social Protection Index (SPI) uses neoliberal and Western-based variables and tends to disadvantage subaltern post-colonial communities as in the Pacific. This article reverses this trend by arguing for a re-examination of the factors which shape the resilience and adaptability of local communities, something which has always been ignored by mainstream classificatory schemas such as the FSI and SPI. To this end, the article examines the indigenous and local human security and social protection systems in the Pacific and how these provide support mechanisms for community resilience and adaptation in the face of a predatory neoliberal onslaught and globalisation. It focuses on kinship, reciprocity, communal obligation and communal labour as examples of social protection mechanisms in four case studies—Fiji, Samoa, Kiribati and Vanuatu. Of significance here is the role of critical and progressive journalists and media in deconstructing the ideological and cultural bias embedded in these discourses

Book review: Transforming universities in the midst of global crisis: A university for the common good

Abstract This article provides a review of Transforming Universities in the Midst of Global Crisis: A University for the Common Good, authored by Richard Hil, Kristen Lyons and Fern Thompsett

Risk, Identity and Conflict: A Critical Overview

This chapter provides an overview of the book by critically examining some of the ways in which risk and identity intersect especially in relation to conflict. The relationships between risk, identity and conflict take complex forms, especially when the intersection between identity construction and politics has the potential to create conditions related to risks of conflict, instability, marginalization, human rights abuse and oppression. This is because identity can be used as a means of mobilization to expand political influence, resist hegemony, articulate demands for a group interest or as a means of achieving particular political ends. The book attempts to cover such aspects by looking at specific case studies around the world. While focusing on diverse historical and contextual differences, it also provides some common strands in relation to how various forms of identity such as ethnicity, religion, culture and gender are linked to social and political mobilization, framing of the “Other,” electoral engineering, group oppression and even genocide