A Precarious Balance: Neoliberalism, Crisis Management, and the Social Implosion in Jamaica

Authors

Tony Weis, The University of Western Ontario

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2005

Volume

29

Issue

1

Journal

Capital & Class

First Page

115

Last Page

147

URL with Digital Object Identifier

http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/030981680508500116

Abstract

This article examines the process of structural adjustment in Jamaica, and the various ways in which the contradictory tensions embedded in the current order are being contained. Although political, economic and social realities are deeply inequitable and potentially unstable, there are serious barriers to understanding, dialogue, organisation and optimism among the poor, which have produced implosive intra-class dynamics.

Assessing these barriers provides insight into the challenge of re-inspiring alternative imaginations and collective opposition to class structures in Jamaica, as well as in other adjusted and heavily-indebted countries where a neoliberal fatalism is contributing to social atomisation, rather than to mobilisation.