State-building and state formation in the western Pacific : Solomon Islands in transition? / edited by Matthew G. Allen and Sinclair Dinnen.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Solomon Islands in Transition? / Matthew G. Allen and Sinclair Dinnen -- 2. The Teleology and Romance of State-building in Solomon Islands / Jon Fraenkel -- 3. Honiara: Arrival City and Pacific Hybrid Living Space / Clive Moore -- 4. From Taovia to Trustee: Urbanisation, Land Disputes and Social Differentiation in Kakabona / Rebecca Monson -- 5. Customary Authority and State Withdrawal in Solomon Islands: Resilience or Tenacity? / Debra Mcdougall -- 6. Big Money in the Rural: Wealth and Dispossession in Western Solomons Political Economy / Edvard Hviding -- 7. Maasina Rule beyond Recognition / David Akin -- 8. Urban Land in Honiara: Strategies and Rights to the City /Joseph Foukona.

"This book provides a rigorous and cross-disciplinary analysis of this Melanesian nation at a critical juncture in its post-colonial and post-conflict history, with contributions from leading scholars of Solomon Islands. The notion of &#x;transition&#x; as used to describe the recent drawdown of the decade-long Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) provides a departure point for considering other transformations &#x; social, political and economic &#x;under way in the archipelagic nation. Organised around a central tension between change and continuity, two of the book&#x;s key themes are the contested narratives of changing state&#x;society relations and the changing social relations around land and natural resources engendered by ongoing processes of globalisation and urbanisation. Drawing heuristically on RAMSI&#x;s genesis in the &#x;state- building moment&#x; that dominated international relations during the first decade of this century, the book also examines the critical distinction between &#x;state-building&#x; and &#x;state formation&#x; in the Solomon Islands context. It engages with global scholarly and policy debates on issues such as peacebuilding, state-building, legal pluralism, hybrid governance, globalisation, urbanisation and the governance of natural resources. These themes resonate well beyond Solomon Islands and Melanesia, and the book will be of interest to a wide range of students, scholars and development practitioners. This book was previously published as a special issue of The Journal of Pacific History"--Publisher website.