For too long the discipline of economics, despite widespread criticism, has measured economic growth in terms of material progress as measured by increases in real Gross Domestic Product per capita with the occasional addition in a development context of simplistic and often unreliable measures of ‘wellbeing’. By contrast, the starting point for this panel is that all economies are socially and culturally embedded (see Polanyi 1957). Ideas of the predominance of the formal ‘cash economy’ have been regularly critiqued in a Pacific context. For example, in 2007 the Vanuatu Cultural Centre under the direction of Ralph Regenvanu hosted the year of the Traditional Economy or Kastom Ekonomi in an effort to recognise the primary importance of the traditional economy as the “main economy” in Vanuatu. More people participate in traditional economic activities including the expressive arts and small-scale agricultural production, than in the cash economy (Regenvanu 2007). Access to land and sea are central to the operation of cultural economies. Development pathways must recognise the foundational role of culture and land to the livelihoods and identities of Pacific Island peoples. The discipline of cultural economics, particularly as outlined by Prof. David Throsby, and linked to cultural policy, cultural industries and the creative economy in Oceania through the work of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, provides a new lens for considering development pathways that sustain, rather than erode, Pacific relations to place and heritage practices. This panel will consider intersections of culture, economics, policy and regulation in discussing approaches that may better facilitate meaningful, sustainable development for Pacific peoples.
Paper submissions are closed