The essays in this book engage with events, projects, and developments in ways that describe a host of social relationships and, often, the problems that themselves maintain those social relations as inherently conflicted ones. By attending to particular events and structures these chapters unravel some of the dynamics that animate social changes in West Maui.
Each chapter inventories the concerns, lands, and people who were key to conflicts that drive ongoing social transformations in West Maui. Social change is not only the documentation of historical happenings, but the singular, material confluence of historical factors that drives futurity. These chapters look at these factors, historically and now, to create meaningful comments for people in West Maui and for scholars of cultural studies, history, and sociology. The hope for this collection is to offer discussion of several concrete changes that have contributed to the shape of West Maui’s social institutions and communities.
The North Beach–West Maui Benefit Fund has supported a number of book projects focused on West Maui’s communities and histories. This volume was preceded by, among other publication projects, Tourism Impacts West Maui (2016), Michelle Anderson’s The Storied Places of West Maui: History, Legends, and Place Names of the Sunset Side of Maui (2015), Sydney Iaukea’s Keka`a: The Making and Saving of North Beach West Maui (2014), Jon Van Dyke and Maile Osika’s Public Access to the Roads and Trails of West Maui (2012), and a published compilation of Proceedings of the Charter Commissions of the County of Maui, 1966-2012 (edited by Lance D. Collins).
