Green Jobs from a Small State Perspective: Case Studies from Malta

Oxford Handbook of Central American History, 2020

Belize's history and politics reflect the country's anomalous position between the Anglo phone Caribbean and Hispanic Central America. Older historical narratives emphasized its exceptionalism as the region's sole British colony, associating national identity with its creole (English-speaking) residents. Official discourses belied the country's actual ethnic complexity, and patterns of wealth and land distribution that mirrored the inequities of the neighboring countries. Recent historiography has emphasized its arduous path to in dependence, which was complicated by colonial intransigence to self-governance and a long-standing Guatemalan territorial claim. Belize's contemporary challenges stem from its political affinities with the Commonwealth and geographic location in Central America. Like most of the Caribbean, its agricultural economy has been wracked by market liberalization, caused by the loss of EU trade preferences. Migration from other Central American countries and between Belize and the United States has reshaped the country's demography, heightening inequities rooted in the colonial era.

Etnicidad y nación: debate alrededor de Belice Belize: …

2009

Nos proponemos organizar un simposio dedicado a Belice, primero para contribuir en un mejor conocimiento de este pais en el campo cientifico latinoamericano; luego y sobre todo porque Belice, con su historia particular (colonia inglesa, independencia reciente), permite acercarnos a la realidad latinoamericana con una mirada novedosa y original. No se tratara entonces de enfatizar la excepcionalidad del caso beliceno, como si fuera una isla aislada en el continente, sino de analizar las luces que nos da sobre procesos sociales comunes a toda la region. En particular, pensamos que los trabajos sobre la sociedad belicena nos invitan a cuestionar las categorias cientificas y los paradigmas de analisis generalmente utilizados en America latina. El simposio se centrara en el tema de la relacion entre etnicidad y nacion, en un pais que tuvo que definirse a si mismo muy recientemente y en una sociedad caracterizada por su diversidad etnica. Proponemos, entre otros, debatir alrededor de las ...

This preliminary Belizean racial project connects how Black identity was used as a political platform through a Pan-African framework to overthrow colonialism and neo-colonial aspects of what developed into a contemporary nationalist outlook. This project utilized a subjective outlook derived from historiographical materials, memoirs, periodicals and journal articles to show how Black collectivity as a tool for liberation (Pan-Africanism) was used as a racial project and later developed into a national project in Belize. According to Michael Omi and Howard Winant, a racial project is "simultaneously an interpretation, representation, or explanation of racial dynamics, and an effort to reorganize and redistribute resources along particular racial lines. Racial projects connect what race means in a particular discursive practice and the ways in which both structures and everyday experiences are racially organized, based upon that meaning." This thesis adapts their notion of a racial project to a Belizean context by substituting Omi and Winant's theoretical limitations that position their understanding of racial dynamics through the lens and activity of intellectuals with a subjective approach that highlights the intersection between grassroots agency and the development of a politicized Black identity. This is done to demonstrate what race is doing given the context of racial dynamics as it relates to the developing Belizean political system. This shows how Pan-Africanism in the historical process of Belizean national development and its application as a contemporary nationalist framework.

2009

Ecotourism is often touted as a new and responsible form of travel that is intended to ameliorate the negative social, cultural and environmental impacts of the traditional or mass tourism industry. As ecotourism is often promoted as a principled response to these impacts it is ...

This paper is a report based on an ongoing ethnographic case study on carnival by the Institute for Social and Cultural Research (ISCR) through the National Institute of Culture and History (NICH) in the village of Caledonia, Corozal, Belize. Pre-Lenten carnival (also referred to as carnaval and pronounced kar na′bal) is a cultural festivity once widely carried out in many parts of northern Belize. However, since the 1980s, it has become less and less practiced in the villages. The aim of the case study is to document the cultural traditions associated with carnival. This paper specifically seeks to fulfill one essential objective of the research which is to describe the cultural forms and meanings of pre-Lenten carnival in Caledonia. It also provides a critical literature review on the development of carnival practices in Belize. Seasonal fieldwork has been ongoing since 2010. Participant as well as non-participant observations and interviews served as the primary methods of data collection. APA Citation: Cocom, R. (2013). Carnival in Caledonia: A preliminary ethnographic profile of carnival practices. In N. Encalada, P. Pelayo, G. Pinelo & S. Solis (Eds.), Research Reports in Belizean History and Anthropology (Vol. 1, pp. 60-77): ISCR, NICH. MLA Citation: Cocom, Rolando. "Carnival in Caledonia: A preliminary ethnographic profile of carnival practices." Research Reports in Belizean History and Anthropology. Eds. Encalada, Nigel, et al. Vol. 1: ISCR, NICH, 2013. 60-77. Print.

Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 2005

This article attempts to explain the difficulties involved in settling an enduring territorial dispute between Guatemala and Belize with a theory involving nationalism, discourse, and domestic politics. Leaders of both states have been unable to pursue settlement options that contradict nationalist discourse framing the territorial dispute. Settlement would damage leaders' credibility and reputations, resulting in domestic punishment. Analysis of 23 years of nationalist discourse, territorial dispute policies, and domestic responses in both Guatemala and Belize provides strong support for the theory.

LSE PhD thesis, 2014

By 1991, Britain retained responsibility for 14 overseas dependent territories. A policy of accelerated decolonisation that took shape under British Governments between the early 1960s and the late 1970s had, by the early 1980s, given way to what Drower has called an ‘era of colonial permanence’.1 This was because territories such as Bermuda refused to take the hint and move towards independence. This thesis examines the way in which Britain appeared to lose control of the process of decolonisation. It will do this by studying power-sharing dynamics in Bermuda between 1963 and 1977. It is argued that Britain did not exercise full control in Bermuda in 1963; her role was characterised by London’s dependence upon Governors who accommodated themselves to the dominant white minority both for pragmatic reasons and out of shared cultural and racial affinities. It was this dynamic that suffused three forums of Anglo-Bermudian collaboration: constitutional reform in 1963-1968; the internal security state in 1968-1973; and the colonial justice system in 1973-1977. This period saw a rapid diminution of British power in Bermuda, a process accelerated by proliferating constitutional ambiguities and metropolitan decline. In contrast, the power of Bermudian conservatives was entrenched via electoral advantages and enhanced local autonomy.

Food and cooking can be an avenue toward understanding complex issues of cultural change and transnational cultural flow. Using examples from Belize, I discuss the transformation from late colonial times to the present in terms of hierarchies of cuisine and changes in taste. In recent Belizean history, food has been used in personal and political contexts to create a sense of the nation at the same time that increased political and economic dependency has undercut national autonomy. I suggest several possible ways to conceptualize t he complex and contradictory relationship between local and global culture.