Globalizing the Caribbean

Political Economy, Social Change, and the Transnational Capitalist Class

Jeb Sprague
Book Cover

PB: $32.95
EAN: 978-1-4399-1655-1
Publication: Aug 20

HC: $74.50
EAN: 978-1-4399-1654-4
Publication: Jul 19

Ebook: $74.50
EAN: 978-1-4399-1656-8
Publication: Jul 19

346 pages
6 x 9
12 tables, 36 figs., 3 maps

Now in Paperback—how global capitalism finds new ways to mutate and grow in the Caribbean

Read an excerpt of Chapter 1 (pdf.)

Description

Globalizing the Caribbean offers a probing account of the region’s experience of economic globalization while considering gendered and racialized social relations under conditions of the exploitation of workers.

Jeb Sprague combines an historical overview of capitalism in the region with theoretical analysis backed by case studies. He elaborates upon the role of class formation, marginalization, and the restructuring of local states. He also considers both U.S. hegemony, and how various upsurges from below and crises occur. In doing so, Sprague shows how transnationally oriented elites have come to rule the Caribbean, and how capitalist globalization in the region occurs alongside shifting political, institutional, and organizational dynamics.

Praise for the hardcover edition:
"Jeb Sprague has made a major contribution by updating the study of the Caribbean to the current era of transnational capital.... Sprague has accomplished what should become a classic work on contemporary Caribbean conditions. Breaking through limited nation-centric viewpoints, he has given us a book built on original theoretical analysis and backed by fully grounded research to uncover how global capitalism has transformed social relations in the Caribbean."— Race & Class

Essays by the author:
• "Haiti on the precipice of Coronavirus" for Haiti Analysis (March 31)
• "The US government’s ‘divide and conquer’ tactics in the Caribbean," The Canary (March 20)

Interviews with the author:
• Discussing the political situation in Guyana on By Any Means Necessary (March 9)

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Selected Abbreviations

1. The Caribbean and Global Capitalism
2. The Challenge of Understanding Social Formation in the Global Era
3. History of the Modern Caribbean
4. The Caribbean Cruise Ship Business and the Emergence of a Transnational Capitalist Class
5. Migration, Remittances, and Accumulation in the Globalizing Caribbean
6. Globally Competitive Export Processing and Exploitation in the Caribbean
7. From International to Transnational Mining: The Industry’s Shifting Political Economy and the Caribbean
Conclusion: Transnational Processes and the Restructuring of the Caribbean’s Political Economy

Notes
References
Index

About the Author(s)

Jeb Sprague is a Research Associate at the University of California, Riverside, and formerly taught at the University of Virginia and at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti, and the editor of Globalization and Transnational Capitalism in Asia and Oceania. He is a founding member of the Network for Critical Studies of Global Capitalism (NCSGC). Visit him online at: jebsprague.blogspot.com.


Subjects

Sociology Latin American/Caribbean Studies Political Science and Public Policy