New Political Culture in the Caribbean

In this new edited volume, Holger Henke and Fred Reno buildon their important collection ModernPolitical Culture in the Caribbean (2003) and revisit some of the themes inCaribbean political culture explored some eighteen years earlier. Thecontributors to New Political Culture in the Caribbean consider more recentdevelopments precipitating significant changes in the political attitudes anddiscourses in the region. Even the persistent themes in Caribbean politicallife – issues such as race, ethnicity, sovereignty, civil rights, or poverty –allow for new consideration, not only because of their longevity but alsobecause in their contemporary form they may speak to new dynamics in society orfind different forms of expression or political impact.

The quality of political discourse – in terms of its contentand forms of presentation – has significantly shifted over the first decades ofthe twenty-first century, and the impact of social media and a concomitant riseof political fringe discourses have accelerated the fragmentation of the publicand polity, leading to sharper confrontations in the political sphere andgiving once again rise to crude forms of nationalism. There are also variousstressors and pressures that run counter to simplistic notions of nationalismand point to a great urgency for more transparent, sustainable, participatoryand equitable modalities of political engagement and discourses in theregion.