Understanding attitudes to national identity among tertiary students in Melanesia and Timor-Leste

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Understanding attitudes to national identity among tertiary students in Melanesia and Timor-Leste

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/91673

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Title: Understanding attitudes to national identity among tertiary students in Melanesia and Timor-Leste
Author(s): Leach, Michael
Abstract: Nation-building remains a key challenge across south-west Pacific societies, including Solomon Islands, PNG, Vanuatu, and the more recently independent state of Timor-Leste. Following decolonisation in the 1970s, it was clear that welding the multiple languages and diverse cultures of the region into unified nations would be a challenge. Recent international 'state-building' efforts in the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste have also faced difficulties, as evidenced by resurgent inter-communal violence in both states in 2006. It is important therefore that the processes of nation-building - of forming a cohesive political community, to support the development of a functional state - are better understood. This paper presents some preliminary findings of an AusAID-funded survey of attitudes to national identity and nation-building among tertiary students in PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Timor-Leste. The findings cast new light on the attitudes of potential future elites towards regional, ethnic, intergenerational and linguistic faultlines in the region, and the challenges of building a cohesive sense of political community and national identity.
Publication type: Seminar, speech or other presentation
Research centre: Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences. Institute for Social Research
Source: Paper presented at the ISR 2010 Seminar Series, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia, 26 May 2010
Publication year: 2010
Keyword(s): Nation building; National identity; Papua New Guinea; Political community; Solomon Islands; Tertiary students; Timor-Leste; Vanuatu
Publisher: Institute for Social Research, Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology
Publisher URL: http://www.sisr.net/events/10isrseminars.htm