Euro-Caribbean Societies in the 21st Century

Euro-Caribbean Societies in the 21st Century: Offshore finance, local élites and contentious politics (Hardback) book cover

Sébastien Chauvin, Peter Clegg, Bruno Cousin eds. (2018)

Euro-Caribbean Societies in the 21st Century: 

Offshore finance, local élites and contentious politics

Routledge, 2018.

This edited collection examines the realities of the last remnants of the European colonial empires in the Caribbean, namely the British, Dutch and French overseas territories.

With chapters by Matthew L. Bishop, J. A. Roy Bodden, Audrey Célestine, Peter Clegg, Gérard Collomb, Justin Daniel, Lammert de Jong, May Hen, Edenz Maurice, Guy Numa, Genève Phillip, Chelsea Schields, Ron van der Veer, Wouter Veenendaal and William Vlcek.

Table of Contents + Introduction

Although known and perhaps infamous for their role as high-end tourist destinations and financial centres, these small jurisdictions are complex and multifaceted places. While this volume considers their role as financial centres, it does so from alternative and original perspectives by examining how the sector shapes the internal dynamics of these Caribbean societies, and how it is itself shaped by global trends. A range of contributions is included that highlight other key issues. Political relations between the territories and their metropolitan centres and with the European Union are the focus of several chapters, highlighting the stresses and strains, and in many cases the unfulfilled expectations of devolved governance. Further chapters describe the economic instability and factors of political conflict faced by some of these societies and the available options to address them. Finally, several chapters reflect more specifically on the territories’ internal social and ethnic dynamics, and the hierarchies and inequalities that result.

Bringing together a variety of different disciplinary perspectives, from political science to sociology, and from anthropology to geography, this book will be of great interest to any academic or student who wishes to see how an often overlooked part of the world is actually a key site of socio-economic transformation and a crucial nexus in global affairs.