ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the dynamic relationship between deepening urbanisation, class and consumption in urban Melanesia. It draws on ethnographic examples from Port Moresby, Lae, Honiara, and Port Vila to illustrate the central role that towns play in processes of class formation in Melanesia. The chapter presents an anthropological vision of urban Melanesian class formation in a social and physical space in constant negotiation, informed by specific historical conjunctures and relationships between people and places. Urban living has had significant and far-reaching impacts on class, labour and consumption in Melanesia. In Melanesia, the idea of class captures changing relationships, social and economic difference and growing inequalities. Class formation in Melanesia can be traced to the caste-like segregation enforced on local populations by colonisers, especially in developing urban zones, which has left a legacy of distinction. Formal education has long been linked with employment and social mobility, and Melanesia is no exception to this global trend.
