[ANU Pacific.Institute] SSGM Seminar | Informality and 'the idea of the town' in Hubert Murray's Papua | 11 November

[Joel Nilon]

Colleagues and Friends,

All welcome to the upcoming seminar hosted by the State, Society & Governance in Melanesia Program:

Informality and 'the idea of the town' in Hubert Murray's Papua
Dr John Conroy - Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy
3.00 - 4.00PM, Tuesday 11 November
Lecture Theatre 2, Hedley Bull Centre (130), ANU

Abstract: The paper follows my study of informality among Chinese and indigenous Tolai in German New Guinea (GNG), where the goal was to impose conformity with a German ideology of 'national-economic purpose'. In Papua, bureaucratic effort was devoted to organizing society in accordance with a less coherent and compelling ideology, the 'preservation of village life' and, in Pt Moresby, with achieving an 'idea of the town' congenial to Europeans. 'Natives' were excluded from the town, other than as menial workers. The paper considers the bureaucratic effort to realize the 'idea of the town' in Pt Moresby and its impact on the traditional landowners and other Papuans, who proved more acquiescent to bureaucratic suasion than the Tolai in GNG. In consequence, urbanism was retarded and Papuan initiative smothered by paternalism.

John Conroy lived and worked in PNG over the period 1970-1981, where he lectured in Economics at the University of Papua New Guinea, and served for four years, 1977-81, as Director of the PNG Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research (predecessor of the present National Research Institute). Subsequently, during the 1980s, he lived and worked in Indonesia for six years. He is currently a non-resident Visiting Fellow in Crawford School. John is preparing a monograph on the idea of the informal economy and its application to PNG.

All Welcome.

Website: http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/cap-events/2014-11-11/informality-and-idea-town-hubert-murrays-papua
Enquiries: john.cox at anu.edu.au<mailto:john.cox at anu.edu.au>

Joel Nilon
State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program
School of International, Political and Strategic Studies
ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200

+61 2 6125 8394
http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/ssgm/


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