At whose service? Caribbean state posture, merchant capital and the export services option.
Elite planners in the Eastern Caribbean sub-region pin their hopes of economic viability on tourism, a vibrant offshore financial (and other) services sector and an increase in export activity from companies operating out of industrial parks. Framed against the perception of an inevitable globalisat...
| Published in: | Third World Quarterly Vol. 23; no. 4; pp. 725 - 752 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Aug2002
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=7484744&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 7484744 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 01436597 TWQ jtl: Third World Quarterly issn: 01436597 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Aug2002 vid: 23 iid: 4 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 7484744 10.1080/0143659022000005355 ppf: 725 ppct: 27 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 247KB tig: atl: At whose service? Caribbean state posture, merchant capital and the export services option. aug: au: Marshall, Don D. affil: Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, PO Box 64, Bridgetown, Barbados su: Tourism Globalization Hegemony Manufacturing processes Financial services industry Caribbean sug: subj: Caribbean Tourism Globalization Hegemony Manufacturing processes Financial services industry ab: Elite planners in the Eastern Caribbean sub-region pin their hopes of economic viability on tourism, a vibrant offshore financial (and other) services sector and an increase in export activity from companies operating out of industrial parks. Framed against the perception of an inevitable globalisation process underway, with limitations posed to high-level or diversified manufacturing, power holders have sought to concentrate on the promotion of 'export services' as a viable cover against new competitive challenges. This article argues, however, that this state of affairs betrays a crisis-of-mission within the ruling class on how to reconstruct political economies marked by the hegemony of merchant capital. Rather than a move towards what are globally the most remunerative factors of production--high-level manufacturing and services--a rather curious consensus has emerged which proclaims a solid future for export services without roots and/or ganglia to local manufacturing. The success of such an 'export services' model anywhere in the Eastern Caribbean will not turn as much on the quality of human resources as it will on overcoming the short-term horizon of local politicians, and the low-risk predilections of the wealthy planter-merchant elite. The latter's conscious 'opt out' strategy on the question of manufacturing diversity has made for a strikingly conservative enterprise culture. More specifically, merchant capitalist societies like those in the Eastern Caribbean insufficiently display the sociocultural attributes required for the creation of high-level services: innovation-mediated risk, research and development competence, and affinities to industrial processes and networks. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Third World Quarterly is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Third World Quarterly holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2002 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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