Table of Contents

1. Solomon Islands in Transition? 2. The Teleology and Romance of State-building in Solomon Islands 3. Honiara: Arrival City and Pacific Hybrid Living Space 4. From Taovia to Trustee: Urbanisation, Land Disputes and Social Differentiation in Kakabona 5. Customary Authority and State Withdrawal in Solomon Islands: Resilience or Tenacity? 6. Big Money in the Rural: Wealth and Dispossession in Western Solomons Political Economy 7. Maasina Rule beyond Recognition 8. Urban Land in Honiara: Strategies and Rights to the City

About the Author

Matthew Allen is a Fellow at The Australian National University. A human geographer who has worked extensively across post-colonial Melanesia, he is the author of Greed and Grievance: Ex-militants’ perspectives on the Conflict in Solomon Islands (2013).

Sinclair Dinnen is a Senior Fellow at The Australian National University and a socio-legal scholar with longstanding experience as a researcher and policy adviser in the Melanesia region.