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: Exploring consumer’s preferences for farmed sea bream

authors: Stefani, Gianluca

subjects: Consumer preferences

abstract: Sea bream (Sparus aurata) production plays a significant part in Italian aquaculture, contributing to almost 18% of national pisciculture sales revenue. In recent years, Italian firms faced higher competition from countries with lower production costs. This prompted responses toward both cost reduction and product differentiation. The objective of this study was to investigate the preferences of Italian consumers for sea bream from fish farms, with a focus on aspects of product differentiation as gleaned from the analysis of the market situation: price, product origin, type and place of fish farming, and, in particular, type of feed. Data were collected with a consumers' survey using personal interviews conducted on a questionnaire that included a choice experiment. Consumer preferences were analyzed with choice models based on stated preference data. The models made it possible to evaluate the potential of products with different combinations of attributes for which there is currently no market information available. In particular, the country of origin emerged as an important element of consumer choice, and to a lesser degree, organic certification and fish farming in marine cages also play a relevant role and may command a price premium

text: Exploring consumer’s preferences for farmed sea bream Sea bream (Sparus aurata) production plays a significant part in Italian aquaculture, contributing to almost 18% of national pisciculture sales revenue. In recent years, Italian firms faced higher competition from countries with lower production costs. This prompted responses toward both cost reduction and product differentiation. The objective of this study was to investigate the preferences of Italian consumers for sea bream from fish farms, with a focus on aspects of product differentiation as gleaned from the analysis of the market situation: price, product origin, type and place of fish farming, and, in particular, type of feed. Data were collected with a consumers' survey using personal interviews conducted on a questionnaire that included a choice experiment. Consumer preferences were analyzed with choice models based on stated preference data. The models made it possible to evaluate the potential of products with different combinations of attributes for which there is currently no market information available. In particular, the country of origin emerged as an important element of consumer choice, and to a lesser degree, organic certification and fish farming in marine cages also play a relevant role and may command a price premium

year: 2012

title: An analysis of the rhetorical organisation of selected authentic Maori texts belonging to the text-types argument and information report

authors: Houia-Roberts, Ngaere

subjects: Te reo Māori

abstract: I report here on the findings of an analysis of the overall rhetorical structure of authentic Māori texts belonging to two different text-types – argument and information report – which were written by highly competent users of the language. I also suggest ways in which this type of analysis could underpin the development of teaching resources designed for Māori-medium educational settings.

text: An analysis of the rhetorical organisation of selected authentic Maori texts belonging to the text-types argument and information report I report here on the findings of an analysis of the overall rhetorical structure of authentic Māori texts belonging to two different text-types – argument and information report – which were written by highly competent users of the language. I also suggest ways in which this type of analysis could underpin the development of teaching resources designed for Māori-medium educational settings.

year: 2004