Absent Development as Cultural Economy: Resource Extraction and Enchained Inequity in Papua New Guinea

• Type of Material: Book Chapter
• Authors: Bruce M. Knauft, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2022-07
• Publisher: Emory University Libraries
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2022 ANU Press
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://doi.org/10.22459/CIRPNG.2022
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Capital and Inequality in Rural Papua New Guinea
• Start Page: 155
• End Page: 182
• Place of Publication or Presentation: Canberra, Australia
• Keywords: economic development; oil/gas developments; Papua New Guinea; global investment; mega-development; social development
• Research Categories: Economics, Finance; Economics, Commerce - Business

Abstract

During the past four decades, mining and oil/gas developments have increasingly become the centrepiece, the Holy Grail, of economic and social development in Papua New Guinea (PNG). This is highly evident in national-level discourse and in local desires for mega-development. One may take by example an eight-page full-colour PNG advertising spread in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which came to news-stands in the US in November 2018 (Eye on PNG 2018). Based on published advertising rates for the WSJ, the newspaper insert cost about USD2 million, or about 6.5 million kina, for distribution in the US alone. This is equivalent to 1 kina and 20 toea for every man and women in PNG over the age of 15. A prominent statement of self-promotion to the larger world of global investment and finance, this advertising section is also a significant statement of national self-identification and aspiration.