Erik Larson

Nation-states confront the global: Discourses of indigenous rights in Fiji and Tanzania

How do global issue constructions serve as resources for actors engaged in domestic political contention, and what does the appropriation of global ideas by domestic actors imply about the spread of global culture? To contribute to knowledge about conflict-based diffusion of global ideas, we examine the histories of global constructions of indigenous rights and national debates about indigenous rights in Fiji and Tanzania. While global models of indigenous rights emphasize self-determination for nondominant, culturally distinct groups at risk from the nation-state, advocates for indigenization policies in Fiji and Tanzania have argued for state policies to entrench political and economic rights for majority or near-majority groups that were well integrated into the nation-state. Although transnationally connected indigenous rights organizations have a greater presence in Tanzania than in Fiji, actors in Fiji remain more engaged with changes in international indigenous rights discourse than their counterparts in Tanzania. This difference reflects variations in the leverage global culture offered in the two cases because of its externality to national political debates. In Fiji, actors appropriated global culture as a means to internationalize a domestic dispute, while in Tanzania the impetus for indigenization came from global economic pressures. Our findings imply that conflict-based diffusion concentrates agency with respect to the use of global legal discourses in domestic actors rather than the globally connected actors and experts who carry global culture in consensus-based diffusion.

Political orientation and the resonance of ethnic mobilization: Understanding the prospects for reducing ethnic politics in Fiji

How do attempts to politically mobilize support on the basis of ethnicity resonate with the people targeted? This paper develops theory about the affinities between institutionalized political orientations—how individuals understand their place in political processes and how they make decisions about political issues—and the ways that ethnic appeals may make sense to people. By focusing on institutionalized orientations as a form of consciousness, this theory enables analysis of how orientations of different segments of a polity facilitate the resonance of ethnic appeals and relate to one another, which holds implications for attempts to counter ethnic mobilization. The paper applies this theory to Fiji, a country that has experienced divisive ethnic politics and attempts to forge alternate models of national unity. Based on in-depth interviews with a sample of citizens from across Fiji, I conclude that distinct political orientations characterize different parts of the population and find within-orientation differences between those who understand political developments in more ethnic terms and those who do not. Using this evidence, I draw implications about the types of changes that might transform the resonance of ethnic mobilization in Fiji.

Out of the Pits: Traders and Technology from Chicago to LondonOut of the Pits: Traders and Technology from Chicago to London, by ZaloomCaitlin. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2006. 224 pp.

amine women and material hardship after job loss. Recent research has called for broader definitions of poverty and wealth to include assets owned, debts owed, and in-kind gifts provided—even if irregularly—by other household members, children’s fathers, or governmental and non-governmental agencies. Especially in combination with the final chapter by Tamara Ohler and Nancy Folbre on “spendable” income, these chapters make an important contribution to that literature. Women, Work, and Poverty: Women Centered Research for Policy Change makes a valuable contribution to the study of inequalities affecting women, race, socioeconomic class, and policy. The book holds together as a volume with its short index and brief introduction, and the consistency in tone and argument among the chapters. More importantly, and most in keeping with the stated aim of the book, each chapter in Women, Work, and Poverty makes a specific policy recommendation for all of us who are concerned with how we may use our efforts to improve conditions for women.