[Asia_news] Human Geography Seminars

[Timothy Sharp]

Monday, 23 October, 2006
3.30pm - 5.00pm, Seminar Room C, Coombs Building

Michelle Carnegie
PhD Candidate
Department of Human Geography

Re-thinking economic dynamics: contingent livelihoods of sailor-traders in Rote

In this seminar I explore the rapidly transforming livelihoods of 
small-scale sailor-traders in Rote, Eastern Indonesia. I theorise 
their economic practices as overdetermined as opposed to being shaped 
by the unfolding logics of state projects and market forces. This 
kind of theorising cannot assume a priori that sailor-traders are 
co-opted, or too small or powerless in the face of macro-economic and 
environmental challenges. I interpret sailor-traders as operating in 
a differentiated economic landscape that offers freedom and 
opportunity as well as constraint. Some of the economic dynamics that 
have changed their livelihoods over the past few decades include new 
technologies, nationalisation, geopolitical regulation, 
cooperativisation, the redrawing of borders, monopolisation, new 
export market niches and currency fluctuations. These multiple 
dynamics have not produced a uni-linear effect causing a more 
immiserated situation. Rather, the outcomes are often unexpected, 
with unintended feedback loops, and causality moving in different 
directions, instigated by different actors. Two current threats such 
as depleting natural resources and increased competition in trade 
invoke a challenge for the future sustainability of sailing-trading 
livelihoods. I conclude by exploring how a community economy approach 
might be fostered to assist in overcoming such vulnerabilities.

Convenor
Kersty Hobson
Department of Human Geography, Research School of Pacific & Asian Studies
Email: kersty.hobson at anu.edu.au
Tel: 612 54344

Sandra Davenport
Department of Human Geography
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
Canberra  ACT  0200  Australia
Tel: +61-2-612-52205;  Fax: +61-2-6257 1893

http://rspas.anu.edu.au/humgeog/

ANU CRICOS Provider Number 00120C



Department of Human Geography
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
ACT 0200

Phone: (02) 61252233
Email: timothy.sharp at anu.edu.au