Håkon Larsen

Håkon Larsen (Research assistant)

M.A., University of Bergen

Håkon Larsen holds an MA in social anthropology from the University of Bergen and currently works as a research assistant for the RCN-funded interdisciplinary research project ‘Island Lives, Ocean States: Sea Level Rise and Maritime Sovereignties in the Pacific’ (OceanStates).

With fieldwork experience from Fiji, Larsen’s interest of research has focused on the socioenvironmental aspects of spearfishing, development, and the creativity and resilience of subsistence economics in the island group of Lau. His thesis ‘The Organic Island’ (2021) explores how the multifaceted dimensions of sociality and ecology are intertwined in the everyday lives of coastal iTaukei Fijians by history and contemporary practices. By examining the ecological basis of subsistence economics, which underpins extensive sets of knowledge practice and social relationships, Larsen demonstrates how the social ecology of rural villages in Fiji provides forms of leverage, not simply to resist political and economic forces, but also the ability to envision societal reconfiguration by directly contesting, for instance, conditions of monetary dependency inflicted by the capitalist economy.