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Book Cover
E-book
Author Moberg, Mark, 1959- author.

Title Slipping away : banana politics and fair trade in the Eastern Caribbean / Mark Moberg
Published New York : Berghahn Books, 2008
©2008

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Description 1 online resource (xv, 250 pages) : illustrations, 1 map
Series Dislocations ; volume 4
Dislocations ; v. 4.
Contents Map of St. Lucia -- Linking the personal, the local, and the global -- An island in history -- Banananomics : work and identity among island growers -- St. Lucia in the global banana trade -- Banana politics -- Privatization and fragmentation -- Survivors -- Desperate times, desperate measures -- Fair trade in discourse and practice -- Fair trade and conventional farming in the Mabouya valley -- Conclusion : a new world or a new kind of dependence?
Summary "During the 1990s, the Eastern Caribbean was caught in a bitter trade dispute between the US and EU over the European banana market. When the World Trade Organization rejected preferential access for Caribbean growers in 1998 the effect on the region's rural communities was devastating. This volume examines the "banana wars" from the vantage point of St. Lucia's Mabouya Valley, whose recent, turbulent history reveals the impact of global forces. The author investigates how the contemporary structure of the island's banana industry originated in colonial policies to create a politically "stable" peasantry. followed by politicians' efforts to mobilize rural voters. These political strategies left farmers dependent on institutional and market protection, leaving them vulnerable to any alteration in trade policy. This history gave way to a new harsh reality, in which neoliberal policies privilege price and quantity over human rights and the environment. However. against these challenges, the author shows how the rural poor have responded in creative ways, including new social movements and Fair Trade farming, in order to negotiate a stronger position for themselves in a shifting global economy."--Book jacket
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 230-242) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Banana trade -- Saint Lucia
Banana growers -- Saint Lucia
Globalization -- Economic aspects -- Saint Lucia
Competition, Unfair.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Exports & Imports.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- International -- General.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- International -- Marketing.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- International Relations -- Trade & Tariffs.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Economics -- General.
Banana growers
Banana trade
Competition, Unfair
Globalization -- Economic aspects
Saint Lucia
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2008032704
ISBN 9781845458744
1845458745
Other Titles Banana politics and fair trade in the Eastern Caribbean