<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The outer island of Kadavu is representative of the Fijian periphery. This paper deals with its physical characteristics, infrastructural conditions, and village economic activities with the aim of understanding the changes it has gone through in recent years. A combination of micro-geographic studies in two villages and a meso-geographical analysis show that the pattern of development found in Kadavu in the early 1980s has not changed much. The current pattern of cash crop production and trade is almost entirely dependent on the kava beverage crop, infrastructure is underdeveloped, the island suffers from the peripheral penalty phenomenon, and government initiatives aimed at changing the trend are very limited. However, the current form of non-capitalist production and its derived benefit has forced villagers into a strategy of adaptation which might actually be preferable for them under the current conditions of peripheralization.</p></abstract>

The outer island of Kadavu is representative of the Fijian periphery. This paper deals with its physical characteristics, infrastructural conditions, and village economic activities with the aim of understanding the changes it has gone through in recent years. A combination of micro-geographic studies in two villages and a meso-geographical analysis show that the pattern of development found in Kadavu in the early 1980s has not changed much. The current pattern of cash crop production and trade is almost entirely dependent on the kava beverage crop, infrastructure is underdeveloped, the island suffers from the peripheral penalty phenomenon, and government initiatives aimed at changing the trend are very limited. However, the current form of non-capitalist production and its derived benefit has forced villagers into a strategy of adaptation which might actually be preferable for them under the current conditions of peripheralization.

Kadavu Island: adaptation and stagnation in the Fijian periphery

Department of Geography and Environment, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

Miscellanea Geographica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Kadavu Island: adaptation and stagnation in the Fijian periphery"}

The outer island of Kadavu is representative of the Fijian periphery. This paper deals with its physical characteristics, infrastructural conditions, and...

Kadavu Island: adaptation and stagnation in the Fijian periphery

Published Online: Jun 30, 2015

Page range: 14 - 20

Received: May 01, 2015

Accepted: Jun 02, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/mgrsd-2015-0006

© by Michael Sofer

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.