Transitions and Intersections between Communalism and Possessive Individualism in Rural Fiji: Repercussions for Responding to Climate Change

Abstract

Indigenous Fijian traditions that are embedded within rural traditions of the vakavanua and the moral economy are often cited as exemplars of social protection and social resilience by the wider climate adaptation community. Recent ethnographic studies have, however, highlighted tensions created by the capitalist cash economy, which promotes individualism over other forms of engagement in the market. Accordingly, this article aims to examine these tensions to identify the consequences for responses to ongoing climate change, arguing that there are other forms of capitalism that blend components of the moral economy with capitalist cash economies. I have referred to these forms of sociality, marketisation, and capitalism as possessive communalism in recognition of the prioritising of sociocentric values and rural traditions of social protection. I argue that it is important for aid organisations and governmental programmes to recognise and support these diverse forms of capitalism that retain traditional values and practises.