Cultural Geography

harmonious ecological connectivity that, despite

differences in language, ethnicity and historical

experience, gives the region a materiality that

might otherwise be difficult to imagine. The two

large black Cs at the foreground of the logo

double as both the initials of the organization,

and two open links in a chain. As links in a chain

they symbolize unity and interdependency

among members, yet as brokenlinks they mark

freedom from the chains of colonial bondage.

The dual symbolism presented by the chains/

links testifies to a fundamental ambivalence

underlying regionalism in the Caribbean.

In the service of a neoliberal agenda, the logo

conveys an image of a region open for business:

an interconnected economic space ready to

service the needs of multinational capital. Not

dissimilar to Cascadia’s glossy tourist brochure,

CARICOM’s logo erases geographic difference

and opens the whole region as a marketable

tourist destination. The ever expanding cruise

ship industry is attracted to the harmonious and

indifferent ‘Caribbean’ as a vacation destination

distant from the messy histories that define and

distinguish places. Indeed, when ‘real’ places

threaten to shatter this image, companies such as

Disney and Royal Caribbean have simply pur-

chased their own private islands and recon-

structed the ‘Caribbean Island’ where the real

cannot puncture the ideal (Orenstein, 1997;

Weinbaum, 1997). In addition to place market-

ing, the image of the island Caribbean also

serves to rework local identities in favor of the

service industry. Writing about the Bahamas,

Alexander suggests that the island discourse

works to rescript racialized bodies and identities

as serviceable, compliant and available to satisfy

a ‘white European longing for what is “rare and

intangible”’ (1997: 96). Thus, like the boosters

of Cascadia, states in the Caribbean find a strate-

gic way to redefine their role in the global eco-

nomy through the effective mobilization of

regionalized images and identities.

While redefining the role of the region on the

global political and economic stage, regional-

ism also performs an ideological function in

managing and controlling internal disruptions.

Obscuring difference and providing a unitary

bond supposedly creates a sense of a larger goal,

an ambition that, if rightly orchestrated, could

serve to circumvent the local reactions to inten-

sifying globalization. Economic restructuring

designed to increase international competitive-

ness and openness to trade exerts downward

pressures on wages, limits market opportunities

for small producers, and undermines the power

of unions to collectively organize in the region.

Accompanied by state deregulation and the

privatization of welfare services, the conse-

quences of trade-led development have resulted

in accelerated declines in the living standards of

poor populations in the Caribbean (Safa and

Antrobus, 1992). As the effects of globalization

are increasingly felt at the local level, state polit-

ical actors and corporate elites can sidestep the

political pressures arising at the scales where the

hardship of poverty and structural adjustment are

most felt. In this context state leaders can be

THE CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY OF SCALE 491

Figure 26.2 Logo for CARICOM

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