University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Department of Anthropology Papers Department of Anthropology 9-1-2005 Development, "Culture," and the Promise of Modern Progress Deborah A. Thomas University of Pennsylvania,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_papers Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Thomas, D. A. (2005). Development, "Culture," and the Promise of Modern Progress. Social and Economic Studies, 54 (3), 97-125. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_papers/57 Special Issue on Sir Arthur Lewis, Part I. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_papers/57 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Development, "Culture," and the Promise of Modern Progress Abstract This essay investigates the key tensions that arise within Jamaica's new cultural policy "Toward Jamaica the Cultural Superstate." The ra gument presented in the paper is that "culture" is a tricky and potentially dangerous site upon which to hinge national development goals, even though the expansion of cultural industries may well represent a viable and potentially lucrative strategy for economic development. This is because invariably, "culture" cannot do the work policy makers would like it to do, and its invocation within policy spheres usually already signals a kind of developmental distress, a perceived need for retooling through a form of social engineering. In other words, "culture" (in the anthropological sense) reflects and shapes, yet cannot in and of itself solve the most pressing challenges facing Jamaica today. Disciplines Social and Cultural Anthropology Comments Special Issue on Sir Arthur Lewis, Part I.