The intensification of rural-urban networks in the Markham Valley, Papua New Guinea

From gold-prospecting to large-scale capitalist projects

Abstract

This article describes the spread and intensification of socio-economic links between a rural hinterland and the expanding city of lae, Papua new Guinea (PnG), since the early twentieth century. long-term ethnographic research in the wampar area of the Markham Valley, close to lae, has shown how variable the pace, intensity and extent of change in relations between an urban centre and its neighbouring hinterland can be. based on fieldwork in the village of Gabsongkeg, the article describes the role of novel socio-economic forms (mission stations, commodity production, markets, mining projects) and transport infrastructure (airstrips, highways) in processes of differential peri-urbanisation. The specific location and circumstances of the introduction of these forms has had the effect of differentiating a social field that previously lacked significant social contrasts, positioning settlements and groups in relation to state and international institutions in ways that have impacted on social reproduction under colonial and post-colonial conditions. The article also discusses the role of people’s expectations in the creation and exploitation of economic opportunities that have the potential to entrench existing socio-economic inequalities further. Not surprisingly, the ethnography indicates that the scale of these novel economic activities has been decisive to their local socio-economic effects. Large-scale capital-intensive projects recently begun or being proposed for the region are already reconfiguring regional social fields. nevertheless, the historical metrial strongly suggests that the specificities of space, time and the sequencing of developments are crucial to the manner in which events unfold, which places significant demands on the ethnographic analysis of particular cases.