Paper short abstract:

An exploration of the aspirations for new ways of life on Misima linked to mining operations and wage labour as manifest in the ways that mine workers constructed new housing during the years of production.

Paper long abstract:

The gold mining project on Misima has now finished. The mine has been decommissioned and the various commitments made in respect of closure are almost all completed. While there were some relocated villages, the housing that grew up around the mine was mainly self-built and the people who lived there were mostly mine employees. The new houses required that the owners earned money or received cash benefits from the mine in order to buy or have access to new materials. People invested their newfound cash, hopes and dreams of the future in these structures. They were symbols of new aspirations and achievements. This paper will explore the design and construction of these houses, comparing it with conventional village housing and examine the changes in everyday life that these new houses represented. The paper will examine the forms of sociality that are both presumed and excluded in the new Misiman 'ideal home' and the ways that these reveal tensions about the nature of 'the good life' as it is manifest in the accumulation of material goods and 'the virtuous life' expressed through sharing work and wealth.