ABSTRACT
This chapter2 tells the story of a very small place that finds itself, like so many other communities in the Caribbean and other parts of the developing world, the victim of forces and processes that are beyond its control, and that have direct impacts upon its present and future well-being. It is the story of a community that is forced to look for alternatives, for responses to the challenges of globalization, economic marginalization and environmental degradation, and for ways of combating the poverty that these processes generate. It is also the story of an attempt to shape the contours of modern democracy – to answer a growing demand for improved mechanisms for popular participation in policy-making and in governance.
