The context for this thesis is conflict between indigenous peoples and foreign aid agencies over land `mobilisation' in Melanesia. The thesis considers whether or not the everyday activities of rural women can be shown to constitute and contribute to resistance to `development' bank structural adjustment. The research was conducted in Ambrym, Vanuatu, with the permission of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre. The study uses feminist, decolonising methodology, and qualitative methods including five months of community-based research and interviews conducted in Bislama. The findings highlight how the rural women engage in daily activities that maintain their connections with their land and strengthen communal value systems, thus resisting structural adjustment. Also featured are tensions between the women's desires to hold on to the land and to access perceived benefits from the modern cash economy. The thesis concludes by making a case for the need to incorporate everyday resistance into analyses of conflict situations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/1963 |
| Date | 09 December 2009 |
| Creators | Sparks, Catherine |
| Contributors | Reitsma-Street, Marge |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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