A Case Study in Unsustainability: The Barbados Sugar Industry

Abstract

Progress in the theory and practice of sustainable development requires a more thorough understanding of the causes of unsustainable events and practices. A particular significance attaches to understanding the ways in which the inherent unsustainability of economic and social formations tends to be translated into more material and morally unacceptable forms of unsustainability. This process of translation is considered in the context of Barbados where the sugar industry is currently in a period of crisis. The discussion attempts to provide a multi-level analysis of the causes of both the sugar industry collapse and the range of unsustainable events which have been associated with this. It appears that a small elite group on the island have been able to sustain their own wealth and power, hut only by translating the progressive instability of their own position into more significant forms of unsustainability. Their ‘success’ in this is seen to reflect not only the economic and political power of this group, hut also the nature of the regulatory’ system in Barbados.