Ethnicity, Class, and Nationalism: Caribbean and Extra-Caribbean Dimensions

(Paperback)

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Celebrants of an ever-emerging "globalization" fly the banner of free trade, the mass marketization of once faltering economies, and rising economic and social standards for all. Many opponents to globalization rightfully point out that borders still exist largely for the purposes of keeping one "commodity" in its place: the labor commodity or, the more familiar, immigrant. Arguments of this type are often steeped in economic and social discourse. Race and ethnicity are seen as either being subsumed by this discourse or are entirely ignored as incidental to this type of political thought. In Ethnicity, Class and Nationalism: Caribbean and Extra-Caribbean Dimensions specialists writing on the Caribbean form of the nation-state place race and ethnicityalong with classin its proper context: at the very foundations of the modern nation. Editor Anton L. Allahar has handpicked scholarship that is both contemporary and expert in its consideration of Caribbean geo-politics. Furthermore, essays in this volume include comparative cases from around the globe. In the interest of locating race and ethnicity as sociological and political categories that are inimical to contemporary conceptions of the nation state, Allahar explores spaces other than the Caribbean. The result is a comparative study that is unique in scope and also in its level of scholarly reflection. This book is the first of its kind. It is essential reading for anyone interested in advancing their analysis of political, economic, social, and cultural thought in the Caribbean.

Reviews

This volume dutifully gathers a variety of interesting cases to illustrate processes of identity formation, conflict and social change in a useful and well-documented resource for anyone looking for a solid introduction to the complex articulators of ethnicity, nationalism and class in the Caribbean at a time when many of the region's communities have been impacted, in varying ways, by the developing context of global political economy. All of this is to be appreciated. -- Jeff Shantz, York University * Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism *

Author Bio

Anton L. Allahar is Professor of Sociology at University of Western Ontario.