Rutgers University Press Equaliberty in the Dutch Caribbean: Ways of Being Non/Sovereign (Critical Caribbean Studies)

Equaliberty in the Dutch Caribbean is a collection of essays that explores fundamental questions of equality and freedom on the non-sovereign islands of the Dutch Caribbean. Drawing on in-depth ethnographic research, historical and media analysis, the study of popular culture, and autoethnographic accounts, the various contributions challenge conventional assumptions about political non/sovereignty. While the book recognizes the existence of nationalist independence movements, it opens a critical space to look at other forms of political articulation, autonomy, liberty, and a good life. Focusing on all six different islands and through a multitude of voices and stories, the volume engages with the everyday projects, ordinary imaginaries, and dreams of equaliberty alongside the work of independistas and traditional social movements aiming for more or full self-determination. As such, it offers a rich and powerful telling of the various ways of being in and belonging to our contemporary postcolonial world. Review "With editors persuasively arguing for a revolutionary non-Western vision of non/sovereignty, this outstanding anthology offers an enlightening alternative look at questions of belonging, and equality and freedom (equaliberty). In case after case in the Dutch-Caribbean, contributors challenge Western-imposed notions of sovereignty and envision new political and socio-cultural futures, making significant contributions to Caribbean Studies and beyond."--Antonio Sotomayor "author of The Sovereign Colony: Olympic Sport, National Identity, and International Politics in Puerto Rico""Equaliberty in the Dutch Caribbean is a compelling collection of debates, case studies, and ethnographies of belonging. It is a philosophical and cultural search for a political space of comfort between colonial dependence and autonomy. Focusing on the non-sovereign status of the Caribbean it opens up the possibility for articulating notions of freedom and liberty in the region."--Linden Lewis "editor of Caribbean Sovereignty, Development, and Democracy in an Age of Globalization" About the Author YVON VAN DER PIJL is an associate professor of cultural anthropology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She co-edited the volume Antropologische vergezichten: mondialisering, migratie en multiculturaliteit. FRANCIO GUADELOUPE is an associate professor of anthropology of the University of Amsterdam and senior research fellow at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV-KNAW), the Netherlands. He is the author of Chanting Down the New Jerusalem: Calypso, Christianity, and Capitalism in the Caribbean. LINDEN LEWIS is a Presidential Professor of Sociology at Bucknell University. He is the editor of Caribbean Sovereignty, Development, and Democracy in an Age of Globalization and the co-editor of Color, Hair and Bone: Race in the Twenty-first Century.