Doctoral Dissertation Research: Regional Economic Integration and the Changing Spaces of Politics in the Caribbean

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Supra-national and transnational regional economies are emerging as a territorial response to the competitive pressures of trade-led development. Analysis of these emerging regional institutions has tended to focus on their implications for the management and control of economic flows and their potential threat to the sovereignty of nation-states. Less attention has been directed to the impact of regional economic integration on the political spaces in which local communities can articulate their concerns over trade-led development. Preliminary evidence suggests regional economic integration is remaking the geography of political opportunity and creating new possibilities for marginalized communities to demand accountability and action at scales beyond the nation-state. Focusing on regional integration in the Caribbean, the doctoral dissertation research project will compare how two non-governmental organizations (one labor- and one feminist-oriented) have interpreted and interacted with regional economic institutions to advance the interests of those they represent. A combination of archival research, interviews with organizational representatives and participant observation will be employed in three locations: Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad. Using a text-based manager, data will be analyzed to reveal a narrative of the changing nature and scale of political opportunity in the Caribbean. Comparing two very different organizations makes it possible to assess which issues have been addressed most successfully at the regional scale. Understanding how non-state actors operate within this complex landscape of political opportunities will advance theoretical and empirical understandings of how regional economic integration transforms political space.The significance of this research lies in its investigation of how regional economic integration reorganizes political space to create opportunities for political action at scales beyond the nation. The research contributes to empirical and theoretical debates within political and economic geography and feminist studies. It extends and deepens analysis of regional economic integration through its attention to cultural discourses and the activities of non-state actors. Exploring how Caribbean community is transformed and how different actors interpret regionalism is key to understanding how supra-national regions are emerging as potential sites for increased public engagement and reinvigorated democratic politics. Advancing empirical understanding of the process of regional development in the Caribbean provides unique insight into meeting the needs of poor and marginal populations at a time of intensified globalization and institutional erosion. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.