Demeaned but empowered : the social power of the urban poor in Jamaica / Obika Gray.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gray, Obika, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Urban poor--Jamaica--Political activity.

Urban poor.

Urban poor--Jamaica--Social activity.

Patronage, Political--Jamaica.

Patronage, Political.

Community power--Jamaica.

Community power.

Crime--Jamaica.

Crime.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (442 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Jamaica : University of the West Indies Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Gray's central thesis asserts that the Jamaican state is a form of predatory state that incorporates contradictory social forces into an arrangement that is hierarchical, often brutal and ultimately debilitating to democracy. He introduces a series of constructs to support this argument, but the more interesting and novel theses are to be found in his vivid description of the social forces that resist the predatory state and how they have carved out a modicum of autonomy based on what he describes as an elaborate value system of badness/honour.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

1 Rethinking Power

2 A Fateful Alliance

3 Fulcrums of Power in the Ghetto

4 Exilic Space, Moral Culture and Social Identity in the Ghetto

5 Badness-Honour and the Invigorated Authority of the Urban Poor

6 A Fettered Freedom

7 Crime, Politics and Moral Culture

8 The Struggle for Benefits

9 Uncaptured Rebels

10 Criminal Self-Organization and Cultural Extremism

11 The Cultural Contradictions of Power

The Ordeal of Social Reconstruction in Jamaica

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed February 22, 2016).

ISBN:

1-4356-1127-6

OCLC:

764528043