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This book compares and contrasts the contemporary development experience of neighbouring, geographically similar countries with an analogous history of exploitation but by three different European colonisers. Studying the so-called 'Three Guianas' (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana) offers a unique opportunity to look for similarities and differences in their contemporary patterns of development, particularly as they grapple with new and complex shifts in the regional, hemispheric and global context. Shaped decisively by their respective historical experiences, Guyana, in tandem with the laissez-faire approach of Britain toward its Caribbean colonies, was decolonised relatively early, in 1966, and has maintained a significant degree of distance from London. The hold of The Hague over Suriname, however, endured well after independence in 1975. French Guiana, by contrast, was decolonised much sooner than both of its neighbours, in 1946, but this was through full integration, thus cementing its place within the political economy and administrative structures of France itself. Traditionally isolated from the Caribbean, the wider Latin American continent and from each other, today, a range of similar issues - such as migration, resource extraction, infrastructure development and energy security - are coming to bear on their societies and provoking deep and complex changes.
List of contents
List of figures
List of tables
List of contributors
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Rosemarijn Hoefte, Matthew L. Bishop and Peter Clegg
1 Colonial legacies and post-colonial conflicts in Guyana
Kate Quinn
2 Democracy and political culture in Suriname
Hans Ramsoedh
3 The dichotomy of universalism and particularism in French Guiana
Fred Réno and Bernard Phipps
4 Politics and ethnicity in the Guianas
Steve Garner
5 Migrations in the Guianas: evolution, similarities and differences
Simona Vezzoli
6 Small-scale gold mining in the Guianas: mobility and policy across national borders
Marjo De Theije
7 Migrants, money and might: the image of China in the Guianas
Paul B. Tjon Sie Fat, Ranu Abhelakh and Edward Troon
8 Infrastructure and regional development of the Guianas
Pitou Van Dijck
9 Untapped: the energy potential of the Guianas
Anthony T. Bryan
Conclusion: Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana in a changing world
Rosemarijn Hoefte, Matthew L. Bishop and Peter Clegg
References
Index
About the author
Rosemarijn Hoefte is Senior Researcher at KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies in Leiden, the Netherlands.
Matthew L. Bishop is Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Sheffield, UK.
Peter Clegg is Head of Department, Health and Social Sciences and Associate Professor of Politics at the University of the West of England, Bristol.
Summary
This book compares and contrasts the contemporary development experience of neighbouring, geographically similar countries with an analogous history of exploitation but by three different European colonizers.
