“There is really nothing quite like Skrzypek’s volume in print... Skrzypek has done an impressive job of bringing [her ideas] together in a rich ethnographic context.” • Dan Jorgensen, Western University
“This is an outstanding ethnography. It fills a major gap in the literature and our understanding of the deep social and cultural changes that occur as local communities anticipate large-scale resource extraction on their lands. A must read or anyone who wants to make sense of transformations that arise after mining actually begins.” • Nick Bainton, The University of Queensland
Exploring the social complexities of the Frieda River Project in Papua New Guinea, this book tells the story of local stakeholder strategies on the eve of industrial development, largely from the perspective of the Paiyamo – one of the project’s so-called ‘impact communities’. Engaging ideas of knowledge, belief and personhood, it explains how fifty years of encounters with exploration companies shaped the Paiyamo’s aspirations, made them revisit and re-examine their past, and develop new strategies to move towards a better, more prosperous future.
Emilia Skrzypek is a social anthropologist based at the University of St Andrews. Her research to date has largely focused on Papua New Guinea where she works on issues related to broadly conceived resource relations and interdependencies.
LC: HD9506.P262 S57 2020
BISAC: SOC002010 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social; TEC026000 TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING/Mining
