RSS 1.0Pacific Dynamics
Browse by
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
-
Journal Articles [22]
Recent Submissions
-
Redefining the Role of the Military in Democratization
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)Ka tangi te titi, ka tangi te kaka, ka tangi hoki ahau. Tihei mauri ora. Rau rangatira ma, nau mai, piki mai, haere mai ki te Whare Wananga o Waitaha. No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora tatou katoa. It is my ... -
The future of Pacific regionalism: Challenges and prospects
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)Fakaalofa lahi atu, Bula vinaka. Bonjour. Kia ora and Good Evening. It’s a great pleasure to be here today. I want to say vinaka vaka levu and thank Professor Steven Ratuva for inviting me to speak. I have been asked to ... -
Governance paradoxes and pathways in Pacific Island countries
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)My talk today focusses on certain key questions that relate to the governance ecosystem of Pacific Island Countries (PICS). Firstly, I argue that policy makers, governments and Pacific citizens have systematically undervalued ... -
Social workers without borders:Challenges to building partnerships. Learning from a PNG/Australian social work education relationship
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)Although there are contentious debates concerning the nature of international and globalised social work, there is considerable evidence that Schools of Social Work Education are actively engaged in cross-border collaborations. ... -
“Violence is not part of our culture:” Ruminations about violence, culture and gender
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)This paper is an excavation of some of the major theories about violence, gender, and culture: mostly from anthropology but also philosophy, sociology and feminist studies. Many are still taught in universities; some have ... -
To know more of what it is and what it is not: Pacific research on the move
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)To name something is to stake a claim, an action which, while having a moment of origin, requires dynamic attention to context and development. This article discusses the naming of Pacific research. It offers a brief but ... -
When the ‘tuna wars’ went hot: Kiribati, the Soviet Union, and the fishing pact that provoked a superpower
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)In 1985 the Republic of Kiribati, a low-lying island nation in the central Pacific, entered into a fisheries access arrangement with the Soviet Union. Coming at the height of renewed Cold War tensions between the USSR and ... -
Education, colonisation and Kanak aspirations in New Caledonia: Historical contexts and contemporary challenges
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)This is an analysis of the role that education has played in the development of colonial relations in New Caledonia. It examines the historical impact of French colonialism and particularly colonial education, and details ... -
Hegemony and counter hegemony in Fiji
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)The article analyses Fiji politics by utilising the analytical framework established by neo-Gramscian scholars, who emphasise the role of social forces and constitutive moments in the making of history. Elite hegemony in ... -
Twenty-five years of inequality-reduction policies in school achievement in New Caledonia
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)New Caledonia, the largest French Territory in the South Pacific, enjoys a high standard of living but is marked by huge social inequalities as a result of geographic and ethnic origin. In New Caledonia, as in the rest of ... -
Domesticating by commodifying the liberal peace? Evidence from the southern Philippines
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)Liberal peacebuilding is the prominent and popular framework employed by intergovernmental organisations and many international non-government organisations in conflict management and resolution in conflictual societies ... -
The lessons from the post-WW2 occupation of Japan
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)The American military occupation of Japan after 1945 has served as a widely admired example of successful post-conflict management. MacArthur’s General Headquarters not only achieved demilitarization and democratization ... -
The notion of ‘constellative thinking’ in Pacific thought: Expanding Oceania.
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)The current paper is a contribution to an ongoing discussion that stemmed from a seminal paper titled “Our Sea of Islands”, by the late Epeli Hau’ofa, Professor of Pacific Studies at the University of the South Pacific. ... -
Civil Society and Political Accountability In Samoa
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)The year 1994 was a particularly interesting one in Samoan politics. Samoan politics is never short on controversy: corruption, allegations of corruption, inefficient government spending, and the odd challenge to a fistfight ... -
Waltzing with the powerful: Understanding NGOs in a game of power in conflict-ridden Mindanao
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)This paper examines the agency of non-government organisations as liberal peace agents and power players in Mindanao—a hybrid political community in the southern Philippines with a legacy of protracted armed conflict. ... -
Young political aspirants in the Fiji 2014 elections- motivations and experiences
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)In 2014, Fiji held general elections for the first time since the coup of 2006. The elections had many features that differed from previous elections. One feature was the reduction of the voting age to 18 years. This, ... -
Indo-Fijian Counter Hegemony in Fiji: A historical structural approach
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)Indo-Fijians make up about 37 per cent of Fiji’s current population and have a unique language and culture, which evolved since Indians fist arrived into Fiji as indentured labourers on board the ship Leonidas in 1879. ... -
The Insecurity Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior Affair: A human rights transition from nuclear to climate-change refugees
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)State-backed terrorism as exemplified by the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, the Amsterdam-registered flagship of the Greenpeace environmental movement, on 10 July 1985 in New Zealand, and the assassination of pro-independence ... -
Pacific youth, acculturation and identity: The relationship between ethnic identity and well-being - new directions for research
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)Given the importance of studying ethnic identity, acculturation and cultural orientation research and scholarship on this phenomenon is rapidly increasing. Moreover there is a groundswell of interest in the relationship ... -
Mediating Publicness: An Analysis of Pacific Audiences’ Desire for a Sphere of their Own in Aotearoa/New Zealand
(Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2017)This paper suggests that Pacific groups are positioned narrowly in New Zealand publicness, often in ways that run counter to Pacific audiences’ demand for in-depth news and information and public debate. Focus groups held ...
