John Cox is an early career social anthropologist based at La Trobe University's Institute for Human Security and Social Change. His PhD (University of Melbourne, 2012) won the Australian Anthropological Society’s Prize for Best PhD Thesis. John’s doctoral research took mass Ponzi schemes as a vantage point from which to observe social and cultural change in contemporary Melanesia, particularly in relation to religion, money and ideas of citizenship.

He has also published on contemporary politics and developmental challenges in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, including the use of new communications technologies, sorcery accusations and medical services, as well as class formation and urbanisation. John has more than twenty years’ experience of living and working in the Pacific region in a variety of roles as a development practitioner, consultant and anthropological researcher and educator.

Christianity, Citizenship, Class, Climate Change, Cultural Change, Democracy, Development, Development Media, Economic Anthropology, Economy and Finance, Gambling, Gender, Morality, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Religion, Urban Identity, Urbanization

Anthropology

Australian Association for Pacific Studies (AAPS)
Australian Anthropological Society (AAS)
Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania (ASAO)
European Society for Oceanists (ESfO)

Melanesia
Micronesia

20th century
21st century

Kiribati, Tok Pisin