Research Associate at the University of California-Riverside and taught previously at the University of Virginia and at the University of California-Santa Barbara. Author of Globalizing the Caribbean: Political Economy, Social Change, and the Transnational Capitalist Class (Temple University Press, 2019), Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti (Monthly Review, 2012), and the editor of Globalization and Transnational Capitalism in Asia and Oceania (Routledge, 2016). A founding member of the Network for Critical Studies of Global Capitalism (NCSGC). Visit: https://sites.google.com/site/jebsprague/ and http://www.jebsprague.blogspot.com.
The Cost of Free Shipping: Amazon in the Global Economy, 2020
The rapid rise of transnational e-commerce is altering market relations and how people consume, r... more The rapid rise of transnational e-commerce is altering market relations and how people consume, rooted in how people produce their existence in global capitalism, and in ways that are often not clearly visible. While fundamental forces of inequality are in motion, the global e-commerce model only intensifies this process, particularly in the global south. This chapter examines the political economy of e-commerce, with regard to South Asia in general, and India in particular. In this chapter, we will look at how corporate power, labour exploitation, and amplified consumerism undergird the rise of e-commerce in India.
How does global capitalism play out in particular and uneven ways? Rather than a faceless stable ... more How does global capitalism play out in particular and uneven ways? Rather than a faceless stable order, it is one fraught with contention. Marion Werner's book Global Displacements is vital in its granular observations, examining the complex understandings and lived experiences of the marginalized and exploited, and providing a critical analysis of dominant narratives of 'development.' Through the contemporary context of Hispaniola in the Caribbean, she examines "stories of worker livelihood strategies, union struggles, labor process restructuring, and development planning" (185), elaborated upon through secondary sources and extensive fieldwork, including interviews with workers, managers, and businesspeople. She casts a wide net, considering themes of worker disposability; the experiences of women and racialized communities; productive networks and uneven rents; the policies of government and international financial institutions; complex social struggles as they relate to export processing; and the role of entrepreneurialism and how it connects with global supply chains. Readers interested in the Caribbean, and particularly Haiti and the Dominican Republic, will gain greatly from reading over the detailed historical chronology, the author's observations, and the firsthand accounts that help humanize what are often presented as faceless political and economic processes.
In recent decades, the logic of transnational capital has seeped into every crevice of the Caribb... more In recent decades, the logic of transnational capital has seeped into every crevice of the Caribbean.
Perspectives on global development and technology , 2018
In 2013 state officials operating through the three federal government branches of Mexico mutilat... more In 2013 state officials operating through the three federal government branches of Mexico mutilated the country's constitution, privatizing upwards of seventy-five percent of the country's hydrocarbon reserves. This article suggests that this neoliberal strategy, carried out by transnationally oriented elites operating through state apparatuses in Mexico (and promoted by officials in Washington and within the International Financial Institutions), is meant to benefit transnational capital. Such drastic change to Mexico's legal order, we argue, in fact violated the country's constitution and symbolized a break with the country's earlier model of development. The federal gov-ernment's anti-constitutional behavior, specifically its violation of Article 136 of the constitution, provides a legal basis for dismissing top officials from their posts and moving toward a constitutional assembly.
This paper looks at the shifting manner in which paramilitarism has been reproduced in Haiti, exa... more This paper looks at the shifting manner in which paramilitarism has been reproduced in Haiti, examining how it has evolved from the Cold War into the era of capitalist globalisation. The central argument of this article is that paramilitarism has not disappeared but has been altered, and that this has occurred in part due to the changing strategies of elites in the global era. Rather than a permanent and widespread force, paramilitary groups are utilised in smaller numbers and only in certain ‘emergency periods’, serving a purpose of containment: targeting political threats and beating down those large populations whose social reproduction is not required by transnational capital. This has been a difficult situation for elites to manage, as they often have only limited control over such ruthless, corrupt and violent elements, which they sometimes require. Following the 1991 and 2004 coup d’états in Haiti, a military–paramilitary–bourgeoisie grouping has repeatedly worked to recover its impunity and revamp its coercive apparatus. Under these conditions, and even more increasingly in the wake of the 2010 earthquake, a variety of elites and technocrats (most importantly, US policymakers) have sought to politically remake the
country alongside processes
As components of society, social classes contain individuals who are carriers of productive relat... more As components of society, social classes contain individuals who are carriers of productive relationships. In the era of global capitalism, chains of accumulation are functionally integrating across borders and regions À uniquely altering the formation of productive relationships. How can we understand class relations in the global era, and in the context of regions and countries in Oceania and Asia? How do transnational capitalist-class fractions, new middle strata, and labor undergird globalization? How have state apparatuses and other institutions in this part of the world become entwined with new transnational processes? To begin to consider these questions, this paper provides an overview and summary of studies on transnational class relations and the associated political economic changes occurring across areas of Asia and Oceania.
On identifie encore parfois le capitalisme à la démocratie. Dans cet article consacré aux transformations politiques et aux restructurations économique connues par Haïti depuis le coup d’État de 2004, Jeb Sprague-Silgado tord le cou à ce préjugé tenace. Il y montre en effet comment, dans un contexte d’intégration croissante de l’économie caribéenne à la mondialisation, la bourgeoisie transnationale utilise les forces paramilitaires pour asseoir sa domination sur l’appareil d’État haïtien. La violence armée exercée contre les classes populaires apparaît ainsi comme une pièce essentielle de l’hégémonie bourgeoise.
This paper will provide an overview of the fundamental changes that the cruise ship business has ... more This paper will provide an overview of the fundamental changes that the cruise ship business has undergone with the emergence of capitalist globalization and in the context of the Caribbean region. Rising profits and investments in tourism during the later decades of the 20th century and into the 21st century have been an important part of the globalizing economy. This has been a consequence of both the major technological and organizational developments of global capitalism, but also, and most importantly, of the global system's changing social and class relations. The shifting social relations and productive activities that undergird the cruise ship business have meant gains for some involved, most especially, transnational capitalists, and exploitative and contradictory dynamics for many others. Annually millions of tourists from high consuming sectors worldwide partake in brief holiday escapes aboard cruise ship vessels. At the same time, the cruise ship business has become an oligopoly, controlled by a handful of large companies, that has driven many competitors out of business or acquiried them. Labor in the business has become more flexibilized, with low-wage workers (from a variety of nationalities) whose activities are increasingly standardized, monitored and micro-managed. While moving away from indicative development planning (with an eye to national goals), state policymakers in the Caribbean, for their own social reproduction, increasingly promote the interests of transnational capital such as with the cruise ship business. Importantly, labor and environmental protections have been stymied as the cruise ship companies, adept at public relations and skirting regulations, remain largely unaccountable.
News headlines warn of rivalries and competition between nations across Asia and the Pacific, eve... more News headlines warn of rivalries and competition between nations across Asia and the Pacific, even as powerful, cross-border relations form on an unprecedented scale. This book looks at the reality behind this façade of nation-state competi- tion, examining the new forms of social, economic, and political integration and conflict fostered by a global capitalist system rife with contradictions, inequali- ties, and crises. We move beyond traditional conceptualizations of the interstate system, with its nation-state competition as the core organizing principle of the world economy, and the institutional framework in which global social forces operate. Political economists have long viewed nations as containers that hold social formations, yet these important studies map the growing transnationality of both material (economic) relations and social relations. To what degree are such processes taking place? How do transnational capitalist-class fractions, new middle strata, and labor undergird capitalist globalization in Asia and Oceania? How do states and institutions connect to these shifting social patterns? How do local, national, regional, and international processes clash or link with transna- tional processes? This book provides insight into a field of dynamic change.
This paper examines the historical trajectory and changing political economy of the mining indus... more This paper examines the historical trajectory and changing political economy of the mining industry in the Caribbean. It will trace how mining operations have occurred in the region through a fragmentation of earlier national developmental policies and international corporate models, shifting to a globalized industry of transnational corporations, flexibilized labor, and a host of subcontractors and exploratory firms. State interaction with the industry has gone from practices of direct or partial control (or guidance) toward policies favoring global competi- tiveness and transnational capitalist investment. With a specific focus on mining operations in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica, this article seeks to illuminate the transition from the international to the global phase of world capitalism. The article concludes that labor, local communities, environmentalists, and social and political move- ments must tackle these shifting conditions.
The theory of an emergent transnational state (TNS), as coined by sociologist William I. Robinson... more The theory of an emergent transnational state (TNS), as coined by sociologist William I. Robinson (2001), claims that through globalization a nascent political, juridical and regulatory network is coming into existence worldwide. This notion rests upon the idea that a dominant social force, a transnational capitalist class (TCC), propels globalization through transnational corporations (TNCs) (Robinson & Harris 2000). The TCC, to promote and ensure its power, requires a concomitant political project. Such a political project would involve, for example: (i) promoting investor confidence in the global economy, (ii) setting up mechanisms and institutions for responding to economic, political, and military crises that threaten the stability necessary for global markets, and (iii) establishing a degree of macroeconomic policy uniformity across borders.
This article, which is an altered version of the introduction in my book Paramilitarism and the A... more This article, which is an altered version of the introduction in my book Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti, seeks to introduce the reader to the historical and sociological context through which paramilitaries, led by people such as Chamblain, struck a major blow against democracy and the Haitian people at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
The Cost of Free Shipping: Amazon in the Global Economy, 2020
The rapid rise of transnational e-commerce is altering market relations and how people consume, r... more The rapid rise of transnational e-commerce is altering market relations and how people consume, rooted in how people produce their existence in global capitalism, and in ways that are often not clearly visible. While fundamental forces of inequality are in motion, the global e-commerce model only intensifies this process, particularly in the global south. This chapter examines the political economy of e-commerce, with regard to South Asia in general, and India in particular. In this chapter, we will look at how corporate power, labour exploitation, and amplified consumerism undergird the rise of e-commerce in India.
How does global capitalism play out in particular and uneven ways? Rather than a faceless stable ... more How does global capitalism play out in particular and uneven ways? Rather than a faceless stable order, it is one fraught with contention. Marion Werner's book Global Displacements is vital in its granular observations, examining the complex understandings and lived experiences of the marginalized and exploited, and providing a critical analysis of dominant narratives of 'development.' Through the contemporary context of Hispaniola in the Caribbean, she examines "stories of worker livelihood strategies, union struggles, labor process restructuring, and development planning" (185), elaborated upon through secondary sources and extensive fieldwork, including interviews with workers, managers, and businesspeople. She casts a wide net, considering themes of worker disposability; the experiences of women and racialized communities; productive networks and uneven rents; the policies of government and international financial institutions; complex social struggles as they relate to export processing; and the role of entrepreneurialism and how it connects with global supply chains. Readers interested in the Caribbean, and particularly Haiti and the Dominican Republic, will gain greatly from reading over the detailed historical chronology, the author's observations, and the firsthand accounts that help humanize what are often presented as faceless political and economic processes.
In recent decades, the logic of transnational capital has seeped into every crevice of the Caribb... more In recent decades, the logic of transnational capital has seeped into every crevice of the Caribbean.
Perspectives on global development and technology , 2018
In 2013 state officials operating through the three federal government branches of Mexico mutilat... more In 2013 state officials operating through the three federal government branches of Mexico mutilated the country's constitution, privatizing upwards of seventy-five percent of the country's hydrocarbon reserves. This article suggests that this neoliberal strategy, carried out by transnationally oriented elites operating through state apparatuses in Mexico (and promoted by officials in Washington and within the International Financial Institutions), is meant to benefit transnational capital. Such drastic change to Mexico's legal order, we argue, in fact violated the country's constitution and symbolized a break with the country's earlier model of development. The federal gov-ernment's anti-constitutional behavior, specifically its violation of Article 136 of the constitution, provides a legal basis for dismissing top officials from their posts and moving toward a constitutional assembly.
This paper looks at the shifting manner in which paramilitarism has been reproduced in Haiti, exa... more This paper looks at the shifting manner in which paramilitarism has been reproduced in Haiti, examining how it has evolved from the Cold War into the era of capitalist globalisation. The central argument of this article is that paramilitarism has not disappeared but has been altered, and that this has occurred in part due to the changing strategies of elites in the global era. Rather than a permanent and widespread force, paramilitary groups are utilised in smaller numbers and only in certain ‘emergency periods’, serving a purpose of containment: targeting political threats and beating down those large populations whose social reproduction is not required by transnational capital. This has been a difficult situation for elites to manage, as they often have only limited control over such ruthless, corrupt and violent elements, which they sometimes require. Following the 1991 and 2004 coup d’états in Haiti, a military–paramilitary–bourgeoisie grouping has repeatedly worked to recover its impunity and revamp its coercive apparatus. Under these conditions, and even more increasingly in the wake of the 2010 earthquake, a variety of elites and technocrats (most importantly, US policymakers) have sought to politically remake the
country alongside processes
As components of society, social classes contain individuals who are carriers of productive relat... more As components of society, social classes contain individuals who are carriers of productive relationships. In the era of global capitalism, chains of accumulation are functionally integrating across borders and regions À uniquely altering the formation of productive relationships. How can we understand class relations in the global era, and in the context of regions and countries in Oceania and Asia? How do transnational capitalist-class fractions, new middle strata, and labor undergird globalization? How have state apparatuses and other institutions in this part of the world become entwined with new transnational processes? To begin to consider these questions, this paper provides an overview and summary of studies on transnational class relations and the associated political economic changes occurring across areas of Asia and Oceania.
On identifie encore parfois le capitalisme à la démocratie. Dans cet article consacré aux transformations politiques et aux restructurations économique connues par Haïti depuis le coup d’État de 2004, Jeb Sprague-Silgado tord le cou à ce préjugé tenace. Il y montre en effet comment, dans un contexte d’intégration croissante de l’économie caribéenne à la mondialisation, la bourgeoisie transnationale utilise les forces paramilitaires pour asseoir sa domination sur l’appareil d’État haïtien. La violence armée exercée contre les classes populaires apparaît ainsi comme une pièce essentielle de l’hégémonie bourgeoise.
This paper will provide an overview of the fundamental changes that the cruise ship business has ... more This paper will provide an overview of the fundamental changes that the cruise ship business has undergone with the emergence of capitalist globalization and in the context of the Caribbean region. Rising profits and investments in tourism during the later decades of the 20th century and into the 21st century have been an important part of the globalizing economy. This has been a consequence of both the major technological and organizational developments of global capitalism, but also, and most importantly, of the global system's changing social and class relations. The shifting social relations and productive activities that undergird the cruise ship business have meant gains for some involved, most especially, transnational capitalists, and exploitative and contradictory dynamics for many others. Annually millions of tourists from high consuming sectors worldwide partake in brief holiday escapes aboard cruise ship vessels. At the same time, the cruise ship business has become an oligopoly, controlled by a handful of large companies, that has driven many competitors out of business or acquiried them. Labor in the business has become more flexibilized, with low-wage workers (from a variety of nationalities) whose activities are increasingly standardized, monitored and micro-managed. While moving away from indicative development planning (with an eye to national goals), state policymakers in the Caribbean, for their own social reproduction, increasingly promote the interests of transnational capital such as with the cruise ship business. Importantly, labor and environmental protections have been stymied as the cruise ship companies, adept at public relations and skirting regulations, remain largely unaccountable.
News headlines warn of rivalries and competition between nations across Asia and the Pacific, eve... more News headlines warn of rivalries and competition between nations across Asia and the Pacific, even as powerful, cross-border relations form on an unprecedented scale. This book looks at the reality behind this façade of nation-state competi- tion, examining the new forms of social, economic, and political integration and conflict fostered by a global capitalist system rife with contradictions, inequali- ties, and crises. We move beyond traditional conceptualizations of the interstate system, with its nation-state competition as the core organizing principle of the world economy, and the institutional framework in which global social forces operate. Political economists have long viewed nations as containers that hold social formations, yet these important studies map the growing transnationality of both material (economic) relations and social relations. To what degree are such processes taking place? How do transnational capitalist-class fractions, new middle strata, and labor undergird capitalist globalization in Asia and Oceania? How do states and institutions connect to these shifting social patterns? How do local, national, regional, and international processes clash or link with transna- tional processes? This book provides insight into a field of dynamic change.
This paper examines the historical trajectory and changing political economy of the mining indus... more This paper examines the historical trajectory and changing political economy of the mining industry in the Caribbean. It will trace how mining operations have occurred in the region through a fragmentation of earlier national developmental policies and international corporate models, shifting to a globalized industry of transnational corporations, flexibilized labor, and a host of subcontractors and exploratory firms. State interaction with the industry has gone from practices of direct or partial control (or guidance) toward policies favoring global competi- tiveness and transnational capitalist investment. With a specific focus on mining operations in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica, this article seeks to illuminate the transition from the international to the global phase of world capitalism. The article concludes that labor, local communities, environmentalists, and social and political move- ments must tackle these shifting conditions.
The theory of an emergent transnational state (TNS), as coined by sociologist William I. Robinson... more The theory of an emergent transnational state (TNS), as coined by sociologist William I. Robinson (2001), claims that through globalization a nascent political, juridical and regulatory network is coming into existence worldwide. This notion rests upon the idea that a dominant social force, a transnational capitalist class (TCC), propels globalization through transnational corporations (TNCs) (Robinson & Harris 2000). The TCC, to promote and ensure its power, requires a concomitant political project. Such a political project would involve, for example: (i) promoting investor confidence in the global economy, (ii) setting up mechanisms and institutions for responding to economic, political, and military crises that threaten the stability necessary for global markets, and (iii) establishing a degree of macroeconomic policy uniformity across borders.
This article, which is an altered version of the introduction in my book Paramilitarism and the A... more This article, which is an altered version of the introduction in my book Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti, seeks to introduce the reader to the historical and sociological context through which paramilitaries, led by people such as Chamblain, struck a major blow against democracy and the Haitian people at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Here is a two-part video interview that I conducted with the listener-sponsored alternative media... more Here is a two-part video interview that I conducted with the listener-sponsored alternative media outlet The Real News Network. We discuss current events in the Caribbean, focusing on the Trump administration’s new aggressive policies toward Cuba and its attempts to divide CARICOM.
Jeb Sprague-Silgado says the firing on the former president's motorcade took place in the context... more Jeb Sprague-Silgado says the firing on the former president's motorcade took place in the context of mass voter disenfranchisement and an attempt to rearrange the country politically away from left forces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qF0MXNbslA
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Papers by Jeb Sprague
country alongside processes
On identifie encore parfois le capitalisme à la démocratie. Dans cet article consacré aux transformations politiques et aux restructurations économique connues par Haïti depuis le coup d’État de 2004, Jeb Sprague-Silgado tord le cou à ce préjugé tenace. Il y montre en effet comment, dans un contexte d’intégration croissante de l’économie caribéenne à la mondialisation, la bourgeoisie transnationale utilise les forces paramilitaires pour asseoir sa domination sur l’appareil d’État haïtien. La violence armée exercée contre les classes populaires apparaît ainsi comme une pièce essentielle de l’hégémonie bourgeoise.
network is coming into existence worldwide. This notion rests upon the idea that a dominant social force, a transnational capitalist class (TCC), propels globalization through transnational corporations (TNCs) (Robinson & Harris 2000). The TCC, to promote and ensure its power, requires a concomitant political project. Such a political project would involve, for example: (i) promoting investor confidence in the global economy, (ii) setting up mechanisms and institutions for responding to economic, political, and military crises that threaten the stability necessary for global markets, and (iii) establishing a degree of macroeconomic policy uniformity across borders.
country alongside processes
On identifie encore parfois le capitalisme à la démocratie. Dans cet article consacré aux transformations politiques et aux restructurations économique connues par Haïti depuis le coup d’État de 2004, Jeb Sprague-Silgado tord le cou à ce préjugé tenace. Il y montre en effet comment, dans un contexte d’intégration croissante de l’économie caribéenne à la mondialisation, la bourgeoisie transnationale utilise les forces paramilitaires pour asseoir sa domination sur l’appareil d’État haïtien. La violence armée exercée contre les classes populaires apparaît ainsi comme une pièce essentielle de l’hégémonie bourgeoise.
network is coming into existence worldwide. This notion rests upon the idea that a dominant social force, a transnational capitalist class (TCC), propels globalization through transnational corporations (TNCs) (Robinson & Harris 2000). The TCC, to promote and ensure its power, requires a concomitant political project. Such a political project would involve, for example: (i) promoting investor confidence in the global economy, (ii) setting up mechanisms and institutions for responding to economic, political, and military crises that threaten the stability necessary for global markets, and (iii) establishing a degree of macroeconomic policy uniformity across borders.