Politics of Identity in Small Plural Societies

Politics of Identity in Small Plural Societies
Author: S. Wilson
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2012-01-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1137012129

In small plural societies, cultural differences can be exaggerated, exploited and intensified during political contests. The survival of these societies as democracies - or even at all - hangs in the balance.

Political Integration in Indian Diaspora Societies

Political Integration in Indian Diaspora Societies
Author: Ruben Gowricharn
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2020-09-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000180417

This book studies the political integration of Indian diaspora communities into their host societies. It argues that insertion occurs on an ethnic basis which enables these groups to utilise their clout, and at the same time exert collective rights in matters like freedom of religion, organisation and lifestyle. Drawing on case studies from South Africa, America, and the Caribbean, the volume analyses different forms, levels and patterns of groupist political integration. It examines various instances of integration such as anti-Indian apartheid laws; the life and times of Dr Sudhindra Bose, one of the early Bengali intellectuals in the US; Hindutva organisations in the US/UK; as well as the introduction of the Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) Scheme by the Indian government. An important intervention in the study of ethnic groups and their integration, the book will be of interest to students and researchers of diaspora studies, globalization and transnational migration, cultural studies, minority studies, sociology, political studies, international relations, and South Asian studies.

Social Media in Trinidad

Social Media in Trinidad
Author: Jolynna Sinanan
Publisher: UCL Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2017-11-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1787350940

Drawing on 15 months of ethnographic research in one of the most under-developed regions in the Caribbean island of Trinidad, this book describes the uses and consequences of social media for its residents. Jolynna Sinanan argues that this semi-urban town is a place in-between: somewhere city dwellers look down on and villagers look up to. The complex identity of the town is expressed through uses of social media, with significant results for understanding social media more generally. Not elevating oneself above others is one of the core values of the town, and social media becomes a tool for social visibility; that is, the process of how social norms come to be and how they are negotiated. Carnival logic and high-impact visuality is pervasive in uses of social media, even if Carnival is not embraced by all Trinidadians in the town and results in presenting oneself and association with different groups in varying ways. The study also has surprising results in how residents are explicitly non-activist and align themselves with everyday values of maintaining good relationships in a small town, rather than espousing more worldly or cosmopolitan values.

Politics, Ethnicity and the Postcolonial Nation

Politics, Ethnicity and the Postcolonial Nation
Author: Eleonora Esposito
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2021-05-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027259984

This book explores the politics of ethnicity and nationalism in the Caribbean from a critical discourse-analytical perspective. Focusing on political communication in Trinidad and Tobago, it offers unique socio-political insights into one of the most complex and diverse countries of the Archipelago. Through a detailed reconstruction of Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s 2010 victorious run for office, this book offers ample empirical evidence of the multimodal discursive strategies that held the key to the success of the first woman PM candidate and her inter-ethnic coalition bid to overcome political tribalism in the country. In parallel, it explores the implications and challenges of the postcolonial Trinbagonian national project, caught between pluralism and creolization. Through its innovative, context-dependent and interdisciplinary CDS approach, this book breaks new ground in Caribbean Studies while at the same time broadening the horizons of the Euro-American tradition of Political Discourse Studies to address the complexities of global postcoloniality.

The Indentured Archipelago

The Indentured Archipelago
Author: Reshaad Durgahee
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2022-02-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1316512266

A historical geographical comparison of the Indo-Pacific Indian indenture labour experience, revealing the hitherto unexplored movements of labourers between colonies.

Dougla in the Twenty-First Century

Dougla in the Twenty-First Century
Author: Sue Ann Barratt
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 159
Release: 2021-05-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1496833716

Identity is often fraught for multiracial Douglas, people of both South Asian and African descent in the Caribbean. In this groundbreaking volume, Sue Ann Barratt and Aleah N. Ranjitsingh explore the particular meanings of a Dougla identity and examine Dougla maneuverability both at home and in the diaspora. The authors scrutinize the perception of Douglaness over time, contemporary Dougla negotiations of social demands, their expansion of ethnicity as an intersectional identity, and the experiences of Douglas within the diaspora outside the Caribbean. Through an examination of how Douglas experience their claim to multiracialism and how ethnic identity may be enforced or interrupted, the authors firmly situate this analysis in ongoing debates about multiracial identity. Based on interviews with over one hundred Douglas, Barratt and Ranjitsingh explore the multiple subjectivities Douglas express, confirm, challenge, negotiate, and add to prevailing understandings. Contemplating this, Dougla in the Twenty-First Century adds to the global discourse of multiethnic identity and how it impacts living both in the Caribbean, where it is easily recognizable, and in the diaspora, where the Dougla remains a largely unacknowledged designation. This book deliberately expands the conversation beyond the limits of biraciality and the Black/white binary and contributes nuance to current interpretations of the lives of multiracial people by introducing Douglas as they carve out their lives in the Caribbean.

Identity, Culture and the Politics of Community Development

Identity, Culture and the Politics of Community Development
Author: Stacey-Ann Wilson
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2015-01-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1443873403

This volume takes as its starting point that issues of identity and culture are important and relevant for community development in nearly every society. It is therefore essential that community development practitioners acknowledge both culture as well as the political necessity of incorporating cultural systems, cultural values and traditions into community development initiatives. This book argues that including identity and culture in community development design, and treating identity and culture as an intrinsic asset can be beneficial for all types of community action, from social cohesion to community economic development. This book is a rethinking and reconceptualising of “community” in an international context, and interrogates what community building, community engagement and community development could entail in this context. The contributors in this volume address identity, culture, and community development in both developing and developed countries from multidisciplinary perspectives. The chapters explore different conceptual and theoretical frameworks in analysing identity and culture in community development, and provide empirical insights on community development efforts around the globe. Furthermore, the chapters explore different community engagement processes, different development models and different stakeholder participation models and processes in an effort to demonstrate that there is no one-size-fits-all design when it comes to community development.

Shifting Transnational Bonding in Indian Diaspora

Shifting Transnational Bonding in Indian Diaspora
Author: Ruben Gowricharn
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2020-05-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000081346

This volume examines Indian diasporic communities in various countries including the United Kingdom, Trinidad, Portugal, Netherlands, and Fiji, among others, and presents new perspectives on the shifting nature of Indian transnationalism. The book: Discusses how migrant communities reinforce the diaspora and retain a group identity, while at the same time maintaining a bond with their homelands; Highlights new tendencies in the configuration of Indian transnationalism, especially cultural entanglements with the host countries and the differentiation of homelands; Studies forces affecting bonding among these communities such as global and local encounters, glocalisation, as well as economic, political, and cultural changes within the Indian state and the wider Indian diaspora. Featuring a diverse collection of essays rooted in robust fieldwork, this volume will be of great importance for students and researchers of diaspora studies, globalization and transnational migration, cultural studies, minority studies, sociology, political studies, international relations, and South Asian studies.

Power Sharing in Lebanon

Power Sharing in Lebanon
Author: Eduardo Wassim Aboultaif
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2019-01-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0429827059

This book studies the origins and evolution of power sharing in Lebanon. The author has established a relationship between mobilization, ethnurgy (ethnic identification), memory and trauma, and how they impact power sharing provisions. The book starts with the events in the 1820s, when communities began to politicize their identities, and which led to the first major outbreak of civil violence between the Druze and the Maronites. Consequently, these troubled four decades in Lebanon led to the introduction of various forms of power-sharing arrangements to establish peace. The political systems introduced in Lebanon are: the Kaim-Makamiya (dual sub-governorship), a quasi-federal arrangement; the Mutassarifiya, the prototype of a power-sharing system; the post-independence political system of Lebanon which the book refers to as semi-consociation, due to the concentration of executive powers in the Presidential office; and finally, the full consociation of the Taif Republic. In each of these phases, there was a peculiar interaction between the non-structural elements that had a direct impact on power sharing; this led at times to instability, and at other times it brought down the system, as in 1840–1860 and 1975. Power Sharing in Lebanon is the first academic work that emphasizes the influence of the non-structural elements that hinder power sharing. This volume is now a key resource for students and academics interested in Lebanese Politics and the Middle East.

Intelligent Economies

Intelligent Economies
Author: Stacey-Ann Wilson
Publisher: Informing Science Press
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2021-06-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

The small island developing states of the Caribbean have been slowing adopting initiatives and technologies that will bring them closer to their aspirations of being robust digital societies. The authors of this volume are academics and technologists who are actively engaged in the Caribbean technology for development ecosystem. This volume explores three broad themes: the political economy of developing intelligent economies in the Caribbean; culture and the intelligent economy, specifically, how Caribbean creative industries and technology can be leveraged in this new environment; and business and the intelligent economy, with special focus on the gig economy, business intelligence, agriculture, makerspaces, and corporation innovation.