Pacific Dynamics
Understanding the dramatic changes in the world today requires deeper and critical exploration of diverse paradigms of knowledge in their conceptual and applied forms. This involves reimagining the often fiercely guarded dominant disciplinary boundaries, research discourses and methodologies. The synergy between local and global discourses and the multidimensional aspects of modern society require diverse intellectual prisms for more critical scholarly research and knowledge production. Questioning dominant ideas and transcending the traditional boundaries of formal disciplines, while maintaining one’s core area of expertise, can be enriching and reflective of the complexity of the contemporary world.
Pacific Dynamics attempts to respond to this need for critical, open and interdisciplinary approach to research. The journal aims to promote rigorous debates on theoretical discourses, applied knowledge and policy issues regarding the Pacific Islands, including New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Rim using multiple prisms. The journal accepts articles from diverse areas of study including gender studies, indigenous studies, conflict-peace-security studies, minority studies, politics, international relations, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, education, philosophy, literature, development studies, economics, marine studies, environmental studies and others not mentioned here. To ensure wide circulation, the journal is online and open access and for academic rigor, it has a comprehensive peer review process.
Pacific Dynamics is published biannually by the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies in collaboration with the Arts Digital Lab at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
The main website for Pacific Dynamics is at: pacificdynamics.nz
All work in Pacific Dynamics is under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence
Collections in this community
Recent submissions
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Reporting legislation of child sexual abuse in the Pacific – a review
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)The global concern with Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is afflicting the countries in the Pacific, with some countries being affected more than others. Pacific countries are trying to deal with the issue through various means, ... -
Are we losing the battle: Fiji’s efforts against illicit drugs
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)Illicit drugs have become a growing cause of concern in Fiji. This paper seeks to discuss the illicit drug related events and issues in Fiji. Despite diverse sentiments both negative and positive shared on the cultivation ... -
The revitalised Fonofale as a research paradigm: A perspective on Pacific sexuality and reproduction research
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)Research into Pacific peoples’ sexuality and reproduction is often complex and conflicts with social tapu. Historically, Pacific sexuality and reproduction research had been approached using a deficits-based lens with ... -
If exam scripts could talk: Insights for literacy teaching and assessment in Oceania
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)Each year, students in Pacific nations sit high-stakes national and regional examinations of English, their second or other language. The results often determine their secondary schooling choices and trajectories. This ... -
Talanoa – Pasifika and Beyond
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)In this paper I discuss how the values, beliefs, and processes of talanoa contribute to wholesome research. I used to think that my PhD journey should not have been this difficult. There were times when I had difficulties ... -
Navigating Fiji’s higher education landscape with indigenous research methodologies
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)My doctoral study explored the development of the Fiji higher education sector following the 2006 coup, from 2007 to 2017, and the challenges faced by the sector during this time. The study involved interviews with government ... -
Integrating Pacific research methodologies with Western social science research methods: quantifying Pentecostalism’s effects on Fijian relationality
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)This paper discusses the attempts of two academics of European descent (one English, one American) who both lived and researched in Fiji for a number of years to develop a longitudinal quantitative research project examining ... -
Growing into: Pacific intellectual genealogies and indigenous development
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)The profile of Indigenous Studies as a discipline and programme of study has increased considerably in recent years, and this is also true at the University of Otago. At Te Tumu, the arrangement of Indigenous Studies ... -
Introduction by editors of the Special Edition on Spaces and Practices of Pacific Thought and Research
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)For centuries, Pacific societies were sustained by collective knowledge systems premised on a relational existence between humans and the environment. European contact, through its modernising agenda disturbed this reality, ... -
Beyond the air-conditioned boardroom: Bridging western and Fijian Indigenous knowledge in tourism research
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)The COVID-19 outbreak and increasing natural disasters have intensified concerns about effective water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices in Fiji’s tourism sector. Whilst Indigenous values and customs are recognised ... -
An analysis of ecosystem-based adaptations in Pacific Island countries
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)Pacific Islands Countries and Territories’ (PICTs) has one of the richest and most complex ecosystems globally, surrounded by oceans with marine and terrestrial diversity. These diverse ecosystems are essential for the ... -
Adapting and reacting to Covid-19: Tourism and resilience in the South Pacific
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)As with small islands around the globe, many of the island states of the South Pacific are heavily dependent on tourism revenue. This article examines how tourism development and its disturbance by Covid-19 has influenced ... -
An integrated evaluation of mangrove health and ecosystem value to local inhabitants: a blended ecological and sociological approach
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)In Fiji, as in other Pacific Islands, mangroves provide substantial resources to local indigenous peoples. These resources include fuelwood, timber, food, and natural medicines. Despite this, Fijian mangroves are still ... -
Assessing the impacts of climate change on domestic crop production: Experience and perception of local farmers in North Malaita, Solomon Islands.
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)The aim of this research was to: 1) gather farmers' experiences and observations of climate change impacts on domestic crop yields during the last thirty years (1988-2018); 2) study climatic projections (2050) and their ... -
Introduction by the editor of the Special Edition on Indigenous Knowledge, Resilience and Climate Change
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)The ever growing impacts of the human induced climate crisis are experienced in very specific ways in the small Pacific Island nations, or what we prefer to call Big Ocean States. Many of these islands are facing the ... -
Waka hem no finis yet: Solomon Islands research futures
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)Research provides discovery in the present, and a legacy for the future. The knowledge gained is in pursuit of a more complete understanding of the world, natural and social. However, research is not a static entity. ... -
Climate change awareness in educational spaces: Itaukei responses through Indigenous knowledge sharing – case study: Talanoa with Dr T podcast & Fijian communities
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2022)With the exponential rise in ‘gloom-and-doom’ reports of climate change spreading like wildfire around the Pacific, something interesting has been taking place around the many digital platforms regarding learning for I ... -
The pathway to leadership is through service: Exploring the Samoan tautua lifecycle
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2021) -
Decolonising quantitative methods within a Pacific research space to explore cognitive effects following kava use
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2021) -
Methodology marriage: Merging Western and Pacific research design
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2021)
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