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Introduction

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Resource Extraction and Contentious States

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Abstract

This chapter introduces the book’s overall storyline: social, political and economic struggles over large-scale resource extraction are inherently spatialised, and islands can provide especially potent settings for the contentious and frequently violent politics of resource access and control. The chapter reviews the key concepts that frame the book’s arguments—drawn from human geography, political ecology and the emerging island studies literature—and describes the primary research, case studies and data that are drawn upon in developing the book’s arguments. It also introduces the Solomons Group of islands, which is the book’s geographical focus, and provides a brief account of the historical production of ‘islandness’ in Melanesia. Finally, the chapter provides an overview of the book’s structure and summaries of each of the five chapters that follow.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji

    Matthew G. Allen

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Allen, M.G. (2018). Introduction. In: Resource Extraction and Contentious States. Palgrave Pivot, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8120-0_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8120-0_1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-8119-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-8120-0

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