Dr Matthew Allen
BA, Grad Dip, MSc, PhD (ANU)
Fellow, State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program; and ARC DECRA Fellow
ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
Areas of expertise
- Human Geography 1604
Research interests
Natural resource governance, political ecology, political economy, extractive resource industries, rural development, agrarian change, local-level governance, state-society relations, and conflict, interventionism and state formation, with a focus on the Western Pacific (Melanesia).
Biography
Matthew works at the interstices of geography, political science and anthropology. The unifying theme for his scholarly and policy work in the Western Pacific over the past 20 years has been the relationships between social, political and environmental change. He has conducted long-term fieldwork in Vanuatu (1997) and Solomon Islands (2005-2006), shorter periods of fieldwork in Papua New Guinea (including in the Autonomus Region of Bougainville), and consultancy work in Papua New Guinea (including as an AusAID adviser in Eastern Highlands, 1999-2001) and Solomon Islands. Matthew’s research interests include resource conflict and extractive resource industries, agrarian change and rural development, local-level governance, and state-society relations. He has published more than 20 peer reviewed book chapters and articles stemming from this work, and is an author of Pillars and Shadows: Statebuilding as Peacebuilding in Solomon Islands (ANU Press, 2010). His doctoral research on the conflict in Solomon Islands resulted in his first book, Greed and Grievance:Ex-militants’ Perspectives on the Conflict in Solomon Islands, 1998-2003, (University of Hawaii Press, 2013). Matthew took up a three-year ARC DECRA Fellowship in 2014 which is examining the interactions between mining, agrarian change, violence, and political fragmentation in Island Melanesia.
Career highlights
- Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow (2014-2016)
- Research Fellow, Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program, ANU (2011-2012)
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program, ANU (2008-2010)
- Doctoral candidate, Crawford School of Economics and Government, ANU
- Research Officer, Department of Human Geography, ANU (2003-2004)
- Regional Development Coordinator, Hassall and Associates (2002-2003)
- Young Professional Officer, ACNARS Project (AusAID), PNG (1999-2001)
- Masters candidate, Department of Geography, ANU (1997-1999)
Publications
- Foukona, J & Allen, M 2017, 'Urban Land in Solomon Islands: Powers of Exclusion and Counter-Exclusion', in Siobhan McDonnell, Matthew G. Allen, Colin Filer (ed.), Kastom, Property and Ideology: Land Transformations in Melanesia, ANU ePress, Canberra, pp. 85-110pp.
- Allen, M, Dinnen, S, Keen, M et al 2017, 'New Pathways Across Old Terrain? SSGM Research on Resources, Conflict and Justice', State Society and Governance in Melanesia, vol. 2017, no. 5, pp. 1-24.
- Filer, C, McDonnell, S & Allen, M 2017, 'Powers of Exclusion in Melanesia', in Siobhan McDonnell, Matthew G. Allen, Colin Filer (ed.), Kastom, Property and Ideology: Land Transformations in Melanesia, ANU Press, Canberra, pp. 1-56.
- McDonnell, S, Allen, M & Filer, C (ed.) 2017, Kastom, Property and Ideology: Land Transformations in Melanesia, ANU Press, Canberra.
- Allen, M 2016, 'Islands, extraction and violence: Mining and the politics of scale in Island Melanesia', Political Geography, vol. 57, pp. 81-90.
- Allen, M & Dinnen, S, eds, 2016, State-building and State Formation in the Western Pacific, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, United Kingdom.
- Allen, M & Dinnen, S 2016, 'Beyond Life Support? Reflections on Solomon Islands after the Regional Assistance Mission', Asia & The Pacific Policy Studies vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 3-12.
- Allen, M & Porter, D 2016, 'Managing the transition from logging to mining in post-conflict Solomon Islands', The Extractive Industries and Society, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 350-358.
- Allen, M & Dinnen, S 2015, 'Solomon Islands in Transition?', Journal of Pacific History, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 381-397.
- Allen, M 2015, 'Framing food security in the Pacific Islands: empirical evidence from an island in the Western Pacific', Regional Environmental Change, vol.15, no.7, pp. 1341-1353.
- Dinnen, S & Allen, M 2015, 'State Absence and State Formation in Solomon Islands: Reflections on Agency, Scale and Hybridity', Development and Change, vol. 46, no. 6, pp. -.
- Dinnen, S & Allen, M 2015, Sustaining the Gains in Post-RAMSI Solomon Islands. State, Society and Governance in Melanesia In Brief 2015/36.
- Oakeshott, D & Allen, M 2015, 'Schooling as a 'Stepping-Stone to National Consciousness' in Solomon Islands: The Last Twenty Years', State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Discussion Paper, vol. 2015, no. 8, pp. 1-20.
- Porter, D & Allen, M 2015, 'The Political Economy of the Transition from Logging to Mining in Solomon Islands', State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Discussion Paper, vol. 2015, no. 12, pp. 1-16.
- Allen, M & Monson, R 2014, 'Land and Conflict in Papua New Guinea: The Role of Land Mediation', Security Challenges, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 1-14.
- Allen, M 2014, 'Governing Renewable Resources in Weak States: The case of logging in Solomon Islands', in Charles Hawksley and Nichole Georgeou (eds.), The Globalization of World Politics Case Studies from Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific (3rd ed), Oxford University Press, Australia, pp. 77-80.
- Allen, M 2014, Testing times for Bougainville's mining future. The Canberra Times.
- Allen, M & Dinnen, S 2013, 'Solomon Islands: From uprising to intervention', in Edward Aspinall, Robin Jeffrey and Anthony J Regan (ed.), Diminishing Conflicts in Asia and the Pacific: Why some subside and others don't, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon and New York, pp. 69-84.
- Allen, M & Dinnen, S 2013, Trouble in paradise lingers. The Canberra Times.
- Allen, M 2013, Greed and Grievance: Ex-militants' Perspectives on the Conflict in Solomon Islands, 1998-2003, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
- Allen, M 2013, 'Rural Development: Back on the Agenda in the Western Pacific?', in D. Hegarty and D. Tryon (eds.), Politics, development and security in Oceania. ANU ePress, Canberra, pp. 165-175.
- Allen, M.G. 2013, 'Melanesia's violent environments: Towards a political ecology of conflict in the western Pacific', Geoforum, vol. 44, pp. 152-161.
- Allen, M.G. and Dinnen, S. 2013. Solomon Islands in Transition. State, Society and Governance in Melanesia In Brief 2013/5. The Australian National University, Canberra.
- Allen, M, Dinnen, S, Evans, D et al 2013, Justice Delivered Locally Systems, Challenges and Innovations in Solomon Islands. Washington DC: World Bank, Justice Delivered Locally, Research Report, August 2013, pp 1-92.
- Dinnen, S & Allen, M 2012, 'Paradoxes of postcolonial police-building: Solomon Islands', Policing and Society: an international journal of research & policy, pp. 1-21.
- Allen, M.G. 2012, 'Informal formalisation in a hybrid property space: The case of smallholder oil palm production in Solomon Islands'. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 300-313.
- Allen, M 2012, 'Land, Identity and Conflict on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands', Australian Geographer, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 163-180.
- Allen, M 2011, 'The political economy of logging in Solomon Islands', in Ron Duncan (ed.), The Political Economy of Economic Reform in the Pacific, Asian Development Bank, Phillipines, pp. 277-302.
- Allen, M 2011, 'Long-term engagement: The future of the regional assistance mission to Solomon Islands', Strategic Insights, vol. 51, pp. 1-18.
- Braithwaite, J, Dinnen, S, Allen, M et al 2010, Pillars and Shadows: Statebuilding as Peacebuilding in Solomon Islands, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia.
- Allen, M & Hasnain, Z 2010, 'Power, pork and patronage: Decentralisation and the politicisation of the development budget in Papua New Guinea', Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, vol. 6, pp. 7-31.
- Allen, M & Dinnen, S 2010, 'The North down under: antinomies of conflict and intervention in Solomon Islands', Conflict, Security and Development, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 299-327.
- Fraenkel, J, Allen, M & Brock, H 2010, 'The resumption of palm-oil production on Guadalcanal's northern plains', Pacific Economic Bulletin, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 12pp.
- Allen, M 2009, 'Resisting RAMSI: Intervention, identity and symbolism in Solomon Islands', Oceania, vol. 79, no. 1, pp. 1-17.
- Allen, M, Bourke, R & McGregor, A 2009, 'Cash income from agriculture', in R. Michael Bourke and Tracy Harwood (ed.), Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 283-424.
- Allen, M 2008, 'Politics of disorder: the social unrest in Honiara', in Sinclair Dinnen and Stewart Firth (ed.), Politics and State Building in Solomon Islands, ANU ePress, Canberra, pp. 39-63.
- Allen, M 2006, 'Dissenting voices: local perspectives on the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands', Pacific Economic Bulletin, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 194-201.
- Allen, M 2006, 'Contemporary Histories of the Conflict in Solomon Islands', Oceania, vol. 76, no. 3, pp. 310-315.
- Allen, M, Bourke, R, Evans, B et al 2006, Solomon Islands Smallholder Agriculture Study Volume 4: Provincial Reports, AusAID, Canberra.
- Bourke, R, McGregor, A, Allen, M et al 2006, Solomon Islands Smallholder Agriculture Study Volume 1: Main Findings and Recommendations, AusAID, Canberra.
- Allen, M 2005, 'Crime, Corruption and Capacity in Papua New Guinea', Oceania, vol. 75, no. 3, p. 304.
- Allen, M 2005, 'Greed and grievance: the role of economic agendas in the conflict in Solomon Islands', Pacific Economic Bulletin, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 56-71.
- Allen, M 2005, 'The evidence for sweet potato in Island Melanesia', in Chris Ballard, Paula Brown, R. Michael Bourke and Tracy Harwood (ed.), The Sweet Potato in Oceania: a reappraisal, Oceania Publications and University of Pittsburgh, Rosebery, NSW, Australia, pp. 99-108.
- Bourke, R, Allen, M & Salisbury, J, eds, 2001, Food Security for Papua New Guinea, Proceedings of the Papua New Guinea Food and Nutrition 2000 Conference, PNG University of Technology, Lae, PNG, ACIAR Proceedings No 99 , Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Canberra.
