title: Locating Mining and Agency in Recent Ethnography of Highlands Papua New Guinea

authors: Howser, Stephanie

subjects: PNG

abstract: This thesis explores the way in which ethnographic enquiry can contribute to a broader understanding of the socio-economic effects of mining development in Papua New Guinea (PNG) through a critical literature review of three key recent ethnographies of Highlands societies. This research is positioned within the field of literature known as the anthropology of mining, which focuses on how mining is embedded in social, political, economic and environmental context.  
The study shows how ethnography essentially reveals a mine as more than a physical location that extracts raw materials from the ground. Rather, it highlights how a mine is diversely constructed and is embedded within a set of complex social relations and cultural concerns that are not restricted to a particular ‘site’. 
The importance of this research is that it explores how change is understood by local PNG communities and their experience with the presence of mining development. It examines how not all change is externally imposed from mining, but can be attributed by changes in internal mechanisms of social organization such as gender relations, exchange practices, alliance and warfare. The dispersed effects of mining are not only made apparent through the multiple forms a mine can encompass in various locations and contexts, but also the agency locals embody, and the evaluative processes they apply to their new circumstances. By exploring the dispersed reality of a mine, ethnographic accounts can track the ways that people in a range of different settings are actively responding to and engaging with situations of change. Ethnography is thus useful as it recognizes that locals are not passive recipients of externally imposed forces, but are active and important agents in creatively shaping the process of change.
The study demonstrates how local people use the presence and influence of mining as a platform from which to reformulate their social identities within a variety of cultural, spatial, and political structures. It explores how the formation of new subject positions extends to encompass issues surrounding morality, inequality and feasibility.

text: Locating Mining and Agency in Recent Ethnography of Highlands Papua New Guinea This thesis explores the way in which ethnographic enquiry can contribute to a broader understanding of the socio-economic effects of mining development in Papua New Guinea (PNG) through a critical literature review of three key recent ethnographies of Highlands societies. This research is positioned within the field of literature known as the anthropology of mining, which focuses on how mining is embedded in social, political, economic and environmental context.  
The study shows how ethnography essentially reveals a mine as more than a physical location that extracts raw materials from the ground. Rather, it highlights how a mine is diversely constructed and is embedded within a set of complex social relations and cultural concerns that are not restricted to a particular ‘site’. 
The importance of this research is that it explores how change is understood by local PNG communities and their experience with the presence of mining development. It examines how not all change is externally imposed from mining, but can be attributed by changes in internal mechanisms of social organization such as gender relations, exchange practices, alliance and warfare. The dispersed effects of mining are not only made apparent through the multiple forms a mine can encompass in various locations and contexts, but also the agency locals embody, and the evaluative processes they apply to their new circumstances. By exploring the dispersed reality of a mine, ethnographic accounts can track the ways that people in a range of different settings are actively responding to and engaging with situations of change. Ethnography is thus useful as it recognizes that locals are not passive recipients of externally imposed forces, but are active and important agents in creatively shaping the process of change.
The study demonstrates how local people use the presence and influence of mining as a platform from which to reformulate their social identities within a variety of cultural, spatial, and political structures. It explores how the formation of new subject positions extends to encompass issues surrounding morality, inequality and feasibility.

year: 2016

title: Efficient Process Model Discovery Using Maximal Pattern Mining

authors: Liesaputra, Veronica

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: In recent years, process mining has become one of the most important and promising areas of research in the field of business process management as it helps businesses understand, analyze, and improve their business processes. In particular, several proposed techniques and algorithms have been proposed to discover and construct process models from workflow execution logs (i.e., event logs). With the existing techniques, mined models can be built based on analyzing the relationship between any two events seen in event logs. Being restricted by that, they can only handle special cases of routing constructs and often produce unsound models that do not cover all of the traces seen in the log. In this paper, we propose a novel technique for process discovery using Maximal Pattern Mining (MPM) where we construct patterns based on the whole sequence of events seen on the traces—ensuring the soundness of the mined models. Our MPM technique can handle loops (of any length), duplicate tasks, non-free choice constructs, and long distance dependencies. Our evaluation shows that it consistently achieves better precision, replay fitness and efficiency than the existing techniques.

text: Efficient Process Model Discovery Using Maximal Pattern Mining In recent years, process mining has become one of the most important and promising areas of research in the field of business process management as it helps businesses understand, analyze, and improve their business processes. In particular, several proposed techniques and algorithms have been proposed to discover and construct process models from workflow execution logs (i.e., event logs). With the existing techniques, mined models can be built based on analyzing the relationship between any two events seen in event logs. Being restricted by that, they can only handle special cases of routing constructs and often produce unsound models that do not cover all of the traces seen in the log. In this paper, we propose a novel technique for process discovery using Maximal Pattern Mining (MPM) where we construct patterns based on the whole sequence of events seen on the traces—ensuring the soundness of the mined models. Our MPM technique can handle loops (of any length), duplicate tasks, non-free choice constructs, and long distance dependencies. Our evaluation shows that it consistently achieves better precision, replay fitness and efficiency than the existing techniques.

year: 2015

title: Intellectual Property, Mātauranga Māori

authors: Sterling, Rogena

abstract: This literature review has been conducted to consider the various national legislation and international agreements that comprise New Zealand’s Intellectual Property Rights (IP) regime. It will evaluate if and how such legislation and agreements protect and enable Māori IP rights and interests with respect to Māori data, genomic data and mātauranga Māori. The review also identifies some mechanisms that might also enhance Māori control of these types of data. The Westminster approach of legislation in New Zealand and its approach to IP protection based on Copyrights, Patents and Trade Marks are juxtaposed against traditional Maori approaches of communally held ancestral knowledge (mātauranga) passed down through generations (whanaungatanga) based on guardianship and protection (kaitiakitanga) and the self-determination of use of such knowledge (rangatiratanga). Attempting to align tikanga concepts to the Westmionster model of law is challenging as the two share completely different notions of ownership and responsibility. Expectations of protection, to prevent misappropriation and commercialisation by non- Māori of mātauranga Māori and Māori data, extend beyond the parameters of existing IP law, creates a similar disjunct. Genomic Research generates data, some of which can be protected by IP, however researchers working with genetic/genomic data from taonga species have often failed to acknowledge the non-IP interests of Maori. As a result, Maori have taken it upon themselves to advocate for their rights to data through Māori data sovereignty discourse as well as create guidelines for culturally appropriate genomic research with explicit references to data security and management (e.g. Te Mata Ira, Te Nohonga Kaitiaki). Other extra-legal options, such as Biocultural Labelling to alert users where particular data has Māori rights and/or interests, are emerging to maintain create durable provenance data and connect next users of data with the responsible Indigenous communities. Though the intellectual property regime in New Zealand may provide some protections, there are still significant areas where the legal system does not provide sufficient protections for Māori data, taonga species and mātauranga. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provides a framework of international support for Indigenous rights, but local government and other home-grown mechanisms are important to enable Māori governance of data. Local approaches Māori Data Sovereignty and Māori Data Governance afford Maori the opportunity to be directly involved as kaitiaki of their mātauranga and assert rangatiratanga over data and its use.

text: Intellectual Property, Mātauranga Māori This literature review has been conducted to consider the various national legislation and international agreements that comprise New Zealand’s Intellectual Property Rights (IP) regime. It will evaluate if and how such legislation and agreements protect and enable Māori IP rights and interests with respect to Māori data, genomic data and mātauranga Māori. The review also identifies some mechanisms that might also enhance Māori control of these types of data. The Westminster approach of legislation in New Zealand and its approach to IP protection based on Copyrights, Patents and Trade Marks are juxtaposed against traditional Maori approaches of communally held ancestral knowledge (mātauranga) passed down through generations (whanaungatanga) based on guardianship and protection (kaitiakitanga) and the self-determination of use of such knowledge (rangatiratanga). Attempting to align tikanga concepts to the Westmionster model of law is challenging as the two share completely different notions of ownership and responsibility. Expectations of protection, to prevent misappropriation and commercialisation by non- Māori of mātauranga Māori and Māori data, extend beyond the parameters of existing IP law, creates a similar disjunct. Genomic Research generates data, some of which can be protected by IP, however researchers working with genetic/genomic data from taonga species have often failed to acknowledge the non-IP interests of Maori. As a result, Maori have taken it upon themselves to advocate for their rights to data through Māori data sovereignty discourse as well as create guidelines for culturally appropriate genomic research with explicit references to data security and management (e.g. Te Mata Ira, Te Nohonga Kaitiaki). Other extra-legal options, such as Biocultural Labelling to alert users where particular data has Māori rights and/or interests, are emerging to maintain create durable provenance data and connect next users of data with the responsible Indigenous communities. Though the intellectual property regime in New Zealand may provide some protections, there are still significant areas where the legal system does not provide sufficient protections for Māori data, taonga species and mātauranga. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provides a framework of international support for Indigenous rights, but local government and other home-grown mechanisms are important to enable Māori governance of data. Local approaches Māori Data Sovereignty and Māori Data Governance afford Maori the opportunity to be directly involved as kaitiaki of their mātauranga and assert rangatiratanga over data and its use.

year: 2021