ABSTRACT
Scarcely uttered before the 1990s, globalisation has suddenly become one of the most common terms in our daily lexicon. The term is regularly invoked in corporate, political and academic depictions of worldwide trends, including those shaping the Caribbean. Despite the term’s ubiquity, it is unusual to find a clear definition of globalisation or to see it interrogated against evidence. Too often, globalisation is presented as if it were some autonomous, pervasive and uncontrollable force. In the face of such an overwhelming force, people seem to have little choice but to adapt and make do. An additional problem with most discussions of globalisation is that they often imply that what is emerging is an inclusive and integrated ‘global village’ (cf. Klak 1998a). This chapter breaks with everyday usage of the term. Rather than presenting globalisation as its own force, and subsuming the Caribbean under the common and typically over-generalised notions of globalisation, this chapter takes a more place- and issue-specific approach. The chapter will first provide an overview of the general nature of globalisation before getting to the specific case of the Caribbean.
