URBANIZATION AND STRATIFICATION IN KINGSTON, JAMAICA
2006
Oxford: Oxford University Press
pp. 298
In this sequel to Kingston, Jamaica: Urban Development and Social Change, 1692-1972 (1975), Colin Clarke investigates the role of class, colour, race and culture (family, religion and education) in the changing social stratification and spatial patterning of the capital since independence in 1962. He also assesses the strains – created by the doubling of the population – on labour and housing markets, which are themselves important ingredients of social stratification. Special attention is given to colour, class and race segregation, to the formation of the Kingston ghetto, to the role of politics in the creation of zones of violence and drug trading in downtown Kingston, and to the contribution of the arts to the evolution of national culture. The book concludes with an evaluation of the decolonization of Kingston.
‘In Decolonizing the Colonial City Colin Clarke focuses on the period following Jamaican independence in 1962. The book is a rich resource, and underscores the value of using the city as a lens through which to explore a wider social, cultural and political history. While it focuses on Kingston, it reveals a great deal about Jamaican development. The first chapter is a well-written introduction that sets the historical scene, while the second is an overview of the urbanisation of the city since independence, providing concrete cartographic data for the analysis of changes over time.
‘Chapters 3 and 4 on plural stratification and racial segregation update Clarke’s earlier doctoral thesis (1967). Clarke argues that his evidence highlights the continuing importance of M. G. Smith’s cultural model, though the importance of class was underplayed by Smith. Interestingly, Clarke’s analysis shows that, “while colour and race have diminished significantly in importance since independence…Kingston’s plural cultures have not waned, and together with class, they remain the bedrock of a highly stratified and spatially polarized system.” This is further pursued in chapter 4, where discussions revolve around the segregation of the class/race groupings, and a wealth of information is provided in tabular and map form. Clarke concludes that the class structure remains hierarchical and the (2007) non-black populations concentrate disproportionately in the elite stratum of the city.
‘Chapter 5 focuses on the transition form slum to ghetto, and it was interesting that the term in Kingston changed at the point in the early 1970s when gangs were becoming active in the downtown districts of the city. Chapter 6 draws on a number of sources to provide a coherent overview of the relationship between political parties and drugs, while chapter 7 takes a very different but relevant perspective on decolonization by focusing on Jamaica’s development of a national culture in art, music, literature, and the theatre. In particular, the section on the importance of reggae and dancehall as forms of political and cultural expression in Kingston is fascinating. In the conclusion, Clarke provides a summary of the main argument and expands his analysis by comparing Kingston with Johannesburg and with São Paulo in relation to desegregation (in the case of the former) and violence (for the latter).
‘I would definitely recommend this book to students and scholars of the Caribbean. It provides both useful data and a clear theoretical perspective that will prove useful and challenging to future researchers, scholars and students.’
– Amanda Sives, Liverpool University (2007)
