Inequality, perceptions of identity and conflict. Inferences from the Black Cat Track, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

This thesis considers how violent conflict can be explained and studied, the type of evidence that suggests causes of conflict, who is gets involved and why. Interest is in what causes the cleavages between adversaries and the extent to which differences might be real or perceived. A case study, from the Black Cat Track in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and involving a violent attack on a group of guides, porters and military tourists in 2013, has been chosen to look closely at the causal mechanisms of conflict, on a scale where the context, people and relationships might be better known and understood. Even so, pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial histories are considered. Changes over this period are discussed to establish how people along the track perceive inequality, identity and conflict. One source of conflict is the existence of horizontal inequalities – or severe inequalities between groups of people who share a common identity. Salient identities can be recognised through the way people are discursively positioned with inherent rights and duties in storylines. The study uses both horizontal inequalities and positioning theory to examine how particular identities become the identities around which people mobilise for conflict.