GET INVOLVED : STORIES OF THE CARIBBEAN POSTCOLONIAL BLACK MIDDLE CLASS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY Kim N. Williams-Pulfer Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indiana University August 2018 Accepted by the Faculty of Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Doctoral Committee _________________________________ Dr. John H. Stanfield II, Co-Chair _________________________________ Dr. Jennifer Thorington Springer, Co-Chair March 7, 2018 _________________________________ Dr. Lehn Benjamin _________________________________ Dr. Brian Steensland ii Dedication To: Marc, Olive, Joelle, and Julian iii Acknowledgements There are many people that offered inspiration, hope, and encouragement throughout my doctoral journey. First of all, I wish to thank my husband Marc and my children Olive, Joelle, and Julian. I am eternally gratefully to have you all in my life. Thank you for your support and love. Thank you to my parents, Earlin and Clara Williams, for your commitment to my education and for instilling in me confidence in my abilities and talents along with a deep respect for others. Also, thank you to the rest of my family, especially my six amazing brothers. In their own individual ways, they taught me to read widely, think deeply, and to hold fast to a creative spirit. Many thanks also to my sisters-in-law, nieces, and nephews for your continued affirmations that I could run the race. I also want to thank my in-laws Gottfried and Theres Pulfer as well as the rest of my Swiss family. Thanks also to my best friends Ebony Beneby and Tamika Galanis for your continued support in everything that I do. To the entire Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy thank you for allowing me grow as a scholar. In particular, I wish to thank my dissertation committee. To my wonderful co-chairs, Dr. John Stanfield and Dr. Jennifer Thorington Springer, you exist as two halves of a critical influence in my life. To Dr. Stanfield, thank you for teaching me the foundations of African Diaspora scholarship along with the intersection of Philanthropic Studies. This project was undeniably shaped by your guidance. To Dr. Thorington-Springer, thank you for your loving, thoughtful, and consistent mentorship. I especially appreciated our connected passion and commitment for our Caribbean home. To Dr. Lehn Benjamin, I am grateful for all of your feedback on this project, but thanks for also helping me consider my scholarly identity as well as for your support throughout the entire doctoral program. Also to Dr. Brian Steensland, thank you for listening to me carefully, asking the right questions, and for providing me with critical insights as I wrestled with my research question and focus. Other faculty members that I wish to thank include: Dr. Dwight Burlingame - I owe my passion for Philanthropic Studies education to you. Thanks also to Dr. Emmett Carson for iv providing me with the incredible opportunity to learn more about the field. Many thanks to Dr. Tyrone Freeman, Dr. Shariq Siddiqui, Dr. Patrick Rooney, Dr. Rich Steinberg, and to rest of the faculty members. Thank you also to my talented colleagues. To Barb Duffy - my dear friend. Thank you for the countless hours of conversation and laughter, close reading on a variety of critical subjects, and mostly for your support. Thanks to my cohort mates, Xiaoyun Julia Wang and Dr. Fady Qaddourra. Other valuable colleagues I want to thank include: Dr. Angela Logan, Dr. Ruth Hansen, Tiara Dungy, Meng-Han Ho, Dr. Ellie Heng Que, Jim Alexander, Richard Clark, and Dr. Elizabeth Dale. It was my pleasure learning with you all. Thanks also to the staff, especially Suzy Lutz, Avis Frieson, and Mary Westerbeck. Thank you for your insight and warmth. Last but not least, thank you to the people of the Bahamas and the rest of the Caribbean including the scholars, civil society practitioners, government officials, and the many communities that made this project possible. Your enduring passion to “get involved” guides my intellect and imagination as well as my hope for a more inclusive and sustainable future. v Kim N. Williams-Pulfer GET INVOLVED : STORIES OF THE CARIBBEAN POSTCOLONIAL BLACK MIDDLE CLASS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY The main research question of this project is: How do the narratives of Caribbean black middle class civil society within the bounds of the “post-postcolonial” state, explain the evolving yet current environment of local and postcolonial civil society development? Using the Bahamas as a case, this project explores the historical, political, cultural, and social conditions that supported the development of civil society within the context of a postcolonial society. Furthermore, an investigation via in-depth interviews, participation observation, archival, and contemporary document analysis contextualizes the present-day work of civil society leaders in the Bahamas. Methodologically, the project employs narrative analysis to uncover the perspectives, voices, and practices of black middle-class Bahamian civil society offering an unfolding, dynamic, and nuanced approach for understanding the historical legacies and contemporary structure of local civil society and philanthropy. The study focuses on three primary forms of narratives. These include the narratives of the past (historical), the narratives of expressive and aesthetic cultural practices, and the narratives of lived experience. The project locates that the development of civil society is linked to historical and cultural forces. The findings show that that the narratives of history, social, and artistic development foregrounds a hybrid model of civil society development drawn from the experience of slavery, colonialism, decolonization, as well as the emerging structures related to economic and political globalization. Furthermore, observed through resilience narratives, local civil society leaders negotiate the boundaries of hybridity in their understanding of their personal, social, and professional identities as well as the way in which they engage government, the public, as well as local and international funders. vi Dr. John H. Stanfield II, Co-Chair Dr. Jennifer Thorington Springer, Co-Chair vii Table of Contents Chapter 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 A New Vision for Caribbean Civil Society? ................................................................................ 1 Civil Society for Societal Improvement: Universal and Local Claims ........................................ 4 Research Question ....................................................................................................................... 6 Boundaries of the Study ............................................................................................................... 7 Significance of the Study ........................................................................................................... 10 Caribbean Cultural Identity and Social Change ......................................................................... 14 Cultural Identity, Social Identity, and Civil Society Development ............................................ 15 Civil Society and the Dynamics of the Global South ................................................................ 18 The Significance of Citizenship and Democracy ....................................................................... 21 Narrative Inquiry Methods ......................................................................................................... 22 Dissertation Outline ................................................................................................................... 27 Connecting the Past and Future of Caribbean Civil Society ...................................................... 28 Chapter 2. Literature and Conceptual Review ............................................................................... 30 What is the Caribbean (Bahamas)? Early Formations ............................................................... 31 Social Forces .............................................................................................................................. 35 Culture and Cultural Identity ..................................................................................................... 43 Civil Society and Civic Engagement: Contemporary Visions ................................................... 52 Imagined Longings/ Assertions ................................................................................................. 57 Caribbean Civil Society and Civic Participation ....................................................................... 64 The Bahamas as a Case .............................................................................................................. 67 Chapter 3. Methodology ................................................................................................................ 74 Caribbean Studies and Interdisciplinarity .................................................................................. 74 Interpretivism and Narrative Inquiry ......................................................................................... 78 Narrative Methods ....................................................................................................................