title: Sugar and spice: Wealth accumulation and the labour of Indian women in Fiji, 1879-1930

authors: Shameem, Shaista

subjects: women - Fiji

abstract: This thesis examines the connection between the fact of 'femininity' of Indian women workers and the accumulation of wealth in Fiji over a period of fifty-one years, 1879-1930. This was the period during which sugar became the country's number one revenue earner. It is argued that Indian women's centrality to the (re)production of capital and labour stemmed from the exploitation of their labour on plantations and farms. As coloured indentured workers Indian women produced surplus for white industrial planters, and as unpaid domestic workers, they produced goods and services for Indian men. In turn, the surplus that women produced for free in the domestic arena enabled the white planter and miller to depress the wages paid to Indian men in the sugar sector and to create stability for male workers. Thus Indian women's labour in both public and private spheres created wealth which accumulated in the hands of both a class of non-producers and men. 
Using an array of theoretical debates derived from Marxist Thought, Feminist Theories and Race/Third World Analyses, and fieldwork examples I argue that between 1879 and 1930 the awareness that Indian women possessed certain physiological and social attributes encouraged both white and Indian men in Fiji to exploit these women in such a way that money was made out of exchanging the products of their labour as well as their bodies as merchandise. These exploitative practices were submerged under a multitude of oppressive ideological messages, much of which had originated in other social and spatial contexts. The recipients absorbed messages of dependency that extolled the virtues of heterosexual coupling within which male dominance was seen to be in the interests of women. The private/public split, which relegated men and women to different areas of work, was maintained on the basis of power, violence and control over paid work by men. Despite these obstacles however, Indian women in Fiji continually resisted all attempts to control their bodies and wrest the products of their labour from them. The struggle between men in the Colony and Indian women for the possession of Indian women and the products of their labour forms the substance of this thesis.

text: Sugar and spice: Wealth accumulation and the labour of Indian women in Fiji, 1879-1930 This thesis examines the connection between the fact of 'femininity' of Indian women workers and the accumulation of wealth in Fiji over a period of fifty-one years, 1879-1930. This was the period during which sugar became the country's number one revenue earner. It is argued that Indian women's centrality to the (re)production of capital and labour stemmed from the exploitation of their labour on plantations and farms. As coloured indentured workers Indian women produced surplus for white industrial planters, and as unpaid domestic workers, they produced goods and services for Indian men. In turn, the surplus that women produced for free in the domestic arena enabled the white planter and miller to depress the wages paid to Indian men in the sugar sector and to create stability for male workers. Thus Indian women's labour in both public and private spheres created wealth which accumulated in the hands of both a class of non-producers and men. 
Using an array of theoretical debates derived from Marxist Thought, Feminist Theories and Race/Third World Analyses, and fieldwork examples I argue that between 1879 and 1930 the awareness that Indian women possessed certain physiological and social attributes encouraged both white and Indian men in Fiji to exploit these women in such a way that money was made out of exchanging the products of their labour as well as their bodies as merchandise. These exploitative practices were submerged under a multitude of oppressive ideological messages, much of which had originated in other social and spatial contexts. The recipients absorbed messages of dependency that extolled the virtues of heterosexual coupling within which male dominance was seen to be in the interests of women. The private/public split, which relegated men and women to different areas of work, was maintained on the basis of power, violence and control over paid work by men. Despite these obstacles however, Indian women in Fiji continually resisted all attempts to control their bodies and wrest the products of their labour from them. The struggle between men in the Colony and Indian women for the possession of Indian women and the products of their labour forms the substance of this thesis.

year: 1990

title: Do the urban poor face higher food prices? Evidence from Vietnam

authors: Gibson, John

subjects: food prices

abstract: Whether there is a poverty penalty, in terms of food prices, is unsettled in the literature after more than four decades of study. Unit values from household surveys suggest that prices vary with income while outlet surveys typically find food prices varying with store type but not with neighborhood income. Most outlet surveys are from rich countries, with just one spatially limited study from a developing country. In this paper we use especially collected food price data from metropolitan areas of Vietnam to test whether the urban poor face higher food prices. Food prices in low-income neighborhoods are 1% lower, on average, than in other neighborhoods. Unit values give a different answer to the question of whether the poor face higher prices and are not suited to answer such a question.

text: Do the urban poor face higher food prices? Evidence from Vietnam Whether there is a poverty penalty, in terms of food prices, is unsettled in the literature after more than four decades of study. Unit values from household surveys suggest that prices vary with income while outlet surveys typically find food prices varying with store type but not with neighborhood income. Most outlet surveys are from rich countries, with just one spatially limited study from a developing country. In this paper we use especially collected food price data from metropolitan areas of Vietnam to test whether the urban poor face higher food prices. Food prices in low-income neighborhoods are 1% lower, on average, than in other neighborhoods. Unit values give a different answer to the question of whether the poor face higher prices and are not suited to answer such a question.

year: 2013

title: Māori education as justice and reckoning

authors: Hemi, Keakaokawai Varner

abstract: Hypothetical musings on what constitutes justice have been taking place at least since the ancient Greek philosopher Plato recorded the above debate between Socrates and Cephalus in Republic circa 380 BCE. Modem philosophical notions of justice have also often been heady stuff relying on heuristic "device[ s] of representation"², "thick and thin"³ theories and other abstract conceptions to untangle real-world inequalities. In comparison, current questions of access to justice are earthy, grunty and real. Increasingly vociferous access to justice claims cite the actual injustice-laden histories of particular groups, speak in terms of harm already inflicted and call for reparative, restorative or healing justice. Indigenous peoples, African-Americans and other disenfranchised, excluded and oppressed groups quote dates, casualty numbers and the legislative section or treaty responsible. For many indigenous people, any single incident is always just one among many in the collective memory; there are always more dates, cases,⁴ facts and figures in the "litany of injustices"⁵ which evidence denial of justice. Gritty statistics in one area of well-being flow into another and over generations. This is justice in the trenches, a place where numbers and statistics are what they are.

text: Māori education as justice and reckoning Hypothetical musings on what constitutes justice have been taking place at least since the ancient Greek philosopher Plato recorded the above debate between Socrates and Cephalus in Republic circa 380 BCE. Modem philosophical notions of justice have also often been heady stuff relying on heuristic "device[ s] of representation"², "thick and thin"³ theories and other abstract conceptions to untangle real-world inequalities. In comparison, current questions of access to justice are earthy, grunty and real. Increasingly vociferous access to justice claims cite the actual injustice-laden histories of particular groups, speak in terms of harm already inflicted and call for reparative, restorative or healing justice. Indigenous peoples, African-Americans and other disenfranchised, excluded and oppressed groups quote dates, casualty numbers and the legislative section or treaty responsible. For many indigenous people, any single incident is always just one among many in the collective memory; there are always more dates, cases,⁴ facts and figures in the "litany of injustices"⁵ which evidence denial of justice. Gritty statistics in one area of well-being flow into another and over generations. This is justice in the trenches, a place where numbers and statistics are what they are.

year: 2017