ABSTRACT
Barbados is a small, tropical island in the Eastern Caribbean (see figure 6.1). For over 300 years sugar dominated Barbadian development, and almost every aspect of life on the island has been profoundly influenced by this single commodity. However, the Barbadian sugar industry is currently in crisis. This chapter begins with a brief description of Barbados and the island’s history. Attention then shifts to the sugar industry and particularly the recent period of crisis. Subsequent sections of the chapter consider how and why the industry has collapsed and how this unsustainability is related to a range of other unsustainable practices and events on the island. What emerges here is a complex picture composed of partial and often contradictory explanations confused by the biases and self-interested perceptions of many of those involved in the industry. Within this, however, it is clear that the crisis cannot be adequately explained by the technical inefficiencies of Barbadian agriculture. Moreover, Barbados’ access to protected and highly preferential markets suggests that the current problems cannot be fully accounted for in terms of externally generated pressures. The final sections of the chapter provide a deeper analysis of ‘unsustainable events’ in and around the Barbadian sugar industry using the approach outlined in chapters 2 and 3. From this perspective, it soon becomes clear that a more meaningful explanation of unsustainability in present day Barbados needs to reflect the unsustainability inherent in the plantation system and the pattern of social relations on the island. The analysis here focuses on the strategies which have been adopted by the island’s elite group to sustain their own status and privilege and the institutional and social context which has legitimated and empowered these strategies.
