Caribbean Land and Development Revisited

by J. Besson (Editor), J. Momsen (Editor)

Overview

The book is an interdisciplinary collection of fifteen essays, with an editorial introduction, on a range of territories in the Commonwealth, Francophone, and Hispanic Caribbean. The authors focus on land and development, providing fresh perspectives through a collection of international contributing authors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781403973924
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	07/24/2007
Series:	Studies of the Americas
Edition description:	2007
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

JEAN BESSON (M.A., Ph.D. Edinburgh), a Jamaican, is Reader in Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, England. She has carried out research in Jamaica and the Eastern Caribbean on cultural history, peasantries, land tenure, development, kinship, gender, and religion. Her publications include Land and Development in the Caribbean (co-edited with Janet Momsen, Macmillan, 1987); Martha Brae's Two Histories: European Expansion and Caribbean Culture-Building in Jamaica (2002); and Caribbean Narratives of Belonging: Fields of Relations, Sites of Identity (co-edited with Karen Fog Olwig, Macmillan, 2005).

JANET MOMSEN is Professor of Geography in the Department of Human and Community Development at the University of California, Davis. She has a B.A. and B.Litt. from Oxford, a M.Sc. from McGill, and a Ph.D. from London. Her research interests include gender and development, rural development and tourism in the Caribbean, Mexico, Eastern Europe and Bangladesh. Professor Momsen's publications on the Caribbean include Land and Development in the Caribbean (co-edited with Jean Besson, Macmillan, 1987); Women and Change in the Caribbean (1993); and Environmental Planning in the Caribbean (with Jonathan Pugh, 2006).

Table of Contents

Introduction; J.Besson& J.Momsen PART I: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LAND AND CROP PRODUCTION The Importance of the 1897 British Royal Commission; B.C. Richardson The Colonial Office and Soil Conservation in the British Caribbean, 1938-1950; L.S. Grossman Domestic Food Production in Guadeloupe in World War II; G.Taitt Cuba's Farmers' Markets in the "Special Period", 1990-1995; R.Torres, J.Momsen& D.A.Niemeier PART II: POLICY, PLANNING, AND MANAGEMENT Land, Development, and Indigenous Rights in Suriname: The Role of International Human Rights Law; E-R.Kambel The Management of State Lands in Trinidad and Tobago; J.D. Stanfield& A.A. Wijetunga The Participation Paradox: Stories from St. Lucia; J.Pugh Land Disputes and Development Activity in the Dominican Republic; D. Mcleod Land Policy in Jamaica in the Decade after AGENDA 21; L.A. Miller& D.Barker PART III: LAND FOR THE PEASANTRY? "Squatting" as a Strategy for Land Settlement and Sustainable Development; J.Besson The Triumph of the Commons: Barbuda Belongs to All Barbudans Together; D.Lowenthal& C.Clarke The Contested Existence of a Peasantry in Martinique: Scientific Discourses, Controversies and Evidence; C.Chivallon The Waxing and Waning of Land for the Peasantry in Barbados; J.Momsen Agro-biodiversity as an Environmental Management Tool in Small Scale Farming Landscapes: Implications for Agro-Chemical Use; B.Spence & E.Thomas-Hope PART IV: LANDSCAPE, MIGRATION, AND DEVELOPMENT Arboreal Landscapes of Power and Resistance; M.Sheller From the Pre-Colonial to the Virtual: The Scope and Scape of Land, Landuse and Landloss on Montserrat; J.Skinner "Leave to Come Back": The Importance of Family Land in a Transnational Caribbean Community; B.Mills Collateral and Achievement: Land and Caribbean Migration; M.Byron

Editorial Reviews

"This ambitious book touches on a variety of issues, ranging from land use to the reorganization of agriculture in Cuba s special period." - New West Indian Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids

"In this sequel to their highly-acclaimed 1987 volume dealing with land and development issues in the Caribbean, Jean Besson and Janet Momsen provide a treasury attesting to the centrality of land in the Caribbean development equation. The contribution of the text is strengthened by its coverage of land-development issues in parts of the Anglophone, Francophone, Hispanic and Dutch Caribbean. All in all, an essential read."

- Rob Potter, Professor of Human Geography, University of Reading

"This rich collection of articles, presenting a significant range of cross-disciplinary research, discusses land as a key to understanding the development of the Caribbean. It demonstrates that land provides a privileged vantage point from which to elucidate the complexities of Caribbean societies past and present."

- Karen Fog Olwig, Professor of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen

"Renowned Caribbean specialists Jean Besson and Janet Momsen have produced an invaluable edited volume for seasoned Caribbeanists and novice scholars alike. Twenty-three authors, spanning the academic disciplines and the legal, planning, and land management professions revisit and re-evaluate the impacts of colonialism and post-colonialism on what is arguably the first of the world regions to have its local geographies wrapped into the global economy.The reader is provided with both a review of past land use and land access issues, as well as fresh insights on all that has transpired in the most recent decades regarding Caribbean people and their lands and resources. This book is a must not only for all with Caribbean interests, but especially for all development thinkers andpractitioners in the region."

- Lydia Pulsipher, Professor of Geography, University of Tennessee

From the Publisher