EMBEDDING SOCIAL CAPITAL IN PLACE AND COMMUNITY: TOWARDS A NEW PARADIGM FOR THE CARIBBEAN FOOD SYSTEM

摘要

Economic ideas of social capital often narrow the social domain totransactions based on individualised motivations (i.e., profit) leaving out moresocial possibilities which may or may not involve maximising personal consumption(i.e., fights for ‘social justice,’ nationalism). This narrowing of vision has real-lifeconsequences, implicated not only in dominant economic theory, but also insocio-economic policies for ‘development.’ In order to tackle challenges to localand regional food security in the Caribbean, we must open policy-making to moreencompassing (Dumont, 1966) motivations for economic behaviour linked to thecreation of social identities within and between people. As a step towards thisend, the author incorporates Sen’s concept of commitment and related theories ofidentity formation into analyses of food production in the Caribbean, and Cubain particular.