Fred Fisk and “subsistence affluence”: part 2 - Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre

Fred Fisk and “subsistence affluence”: part 2 - Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre

This is my second post on Fred Fisk, best known for the idea of “subsistence affluence” in Papua New Guinea. After about 1970, Fisk’s energies were directed to smaller Pacific states, characterised by degrees of subsistence affluence. He signalled this by referring to “self-subsistent indigenous peasants of the Pacific” — people who still had land “in relative abundance”. Fisk had substituted shades of grey for the black-and-white of his origina…