For students of CAPE pursuing Sociology or Caribbean studies. This would provide relevant information pertinent to their understanding of Caribbean society and Culture.

1. Caribbean Social
Structure
Plural Societies

2. Introduction
According to Burton Benedict (1962)
“when one talks about stratification, one is
talking about structure. When one talks
about plural societies, one is usually
talking about ethnic or cultural categories.”

3. The Concept of the Plural Society
 The term
“plural society” which is
associated with the writings of J.S
Furnivall (1944, 1945, 1948) has gained
wide currency in the last few years. On the
one hand it has been hailed “as essential
for comparative sociology” (M.G Smith
1960, 763) and “ as fuel of crucial and
strategic importance for sociological
theory” (Rex 1959, 114).

4. On the other hand, it has been criticized
as “misleading because it concentrates
attention upon differences in race and
custom and upon group conflict while at
the same time directing attention away
from the process making for unity and
integration in the society” (R.T Smith
1958).

5. Neo-Pluralism
John F. Manley (1983).
 When, in 1967, Dahl published the first
edition of his textbook, ‘Pluralist
Democracy in the United States,’ he
identified multiple centers of power and
limited popular sovereignty as the two
basic axioms of American pluralism. He
claimed, moreover, certain advantages for
such a system:

6.  Power was tamed and coercion
minimized.
 The consent of all citizens was promoted
(in the long run).
 The system fostered the peaceful
settlement of conflicts to the mutual
benefit of most if not all the contending
parties.
Pluralism was thus offered as a theory of
power in America and as justification as
well.

7. 
Pluralism has traditionally down played class,
but there is a related and equally important
difference between pluralism and class analysis.
These two theories have historically been caught
up in the battle between socialism and
capitalism that has raged since the midnineteenth century. Social scientist, however
much they may claim value-neutrality in their
work, can hardly deny the political implications of
a position that denies either the existence or
importance of social classes.

8. The Pluralist Theory of Equality

Historically, pluralism and class analysis have
clashed head-on over the issue of equality. Both
theories endorse equality and present
themselves as ways of attaining it, but this is
possible only because they have meant radically
different things by the term. Pluralist democracy,
furthermore, pits equality as a value against a
second great democratic value, liberty, and
tends to see the two as tradeoffs.

9. 
Pluralism and class analysis remain split,
therefore, over the basic unit of analysis
for society. In pluralist theory, classes
have merely a nominal existence
compared to groups: in class analysis,
groups are seen and analyze as fractions
or sub-parts of classes.

10. Ethnic Boundaries and Identity in Plural
Society. Jimy M Sanders (2002).
 Sanders (2002) gave particular attention
to studies that consider how interpersonal
networks within ethnic communities
influence the degree to which ethnic
identity is retained. He claimed that ethnic
boundaries are patterns of social
interaction that give rise to, and
subsequently reinforce, in-group’ self

11. identification and outsiders’ confirmation
of group distinctions. Ethnic boundaries
are therefore better understood as social
mediums through which association
transpires rather than as territorial
demarcations.

12. 
Widely acknowledged racial differences can
sharpen in-group members’ self-identification
and out-group acknowledgement of intergroup
distinctions. Similarly, when interaction between
groups is limited and otherwise and otherwise
conditioned by territorial segregation, intergroup
differences gain emphasis. Constraints on
cross-group interaction contribute to the
respective group ignorances of one another.
This, in turn, encourages stereotyping. Race and
the segregating tendencies of territorial
concentrations are not necessarily components

13. of ethnic boundaries, but when one or
both of these elements of social
organization obtain, they can play
important roles in the maintenance of
ethnic boundaries.

14. Social Networks and Social Capital
 Social networks and the social capital
derived from them are central to the study
of ethnicity in plural societies. The
importance of these social forces is
documented by studies of transnational
networks that encourage labour migration
(Palloni et al. 2001). These networks are
shaped by characteristics of the
immigration stream and by structural
conditions in the host society

15. (Grieco 1998, Massey and Espinosa
1997). Adaptative social networks that
emerge in the host societies exert strong
influences on the labour-market
experiences of adults and on parental and
community efforts to facilitate the success
of the next generation in the host society
(Waldinger 1996, Zhou And Bankston
1998).

16.  The importance of the simultaneous
scholarly attraction to economic dualism
and to the social conditions that fuel the
retention of strong ethnic identities was
that it motivated scholars to explore how
the economic advancement of ethnic
groups might be generated in a context of
economic segmentation and ethnic
awareness. Just how profoundly this
emerging way of thinking about the role of

17. ethic boundaries and identity, in
conjunction with the wave of international
migrants, was to affect studies of ethnic
stratification is ironically conveyed in an
early article by Alejandro Portes. After
studying 48 Cuba refugee families in
Milwaukee, Portes (1969, 516) concluded:
“Longer periods of residence in the United
States will inevitably weaken old cultural
and psychological attachment and offer
broader opportunities for socio-economic
progress for the majority of refugees in

18. new environment….Unless there is a
major political change, (an overthrow of
the Castro regime) the fate of those
migrating to the United Sates as a result of
the Cuban Revolution seems to be an
eventual assimilation, and hence
disappearance as a social entity…leaving
behind, perhaps some cultural imprints on
Miami and a few others U.S cities.

19. Focusing on the role of ethnic networks in
generating economic opportunities, Portes
and Bach (1980) and Wilson and Portes
(1980) reported on an emerging Cuban
enclave economy where businesses were
becoming vertically and horizontally
integrated. A sense of ethnic solidarity
was growing, and social boundaries
fostered group identity. But the picture of
the economic advantages of participating

20. in the enclave was initially unclear. Portes
and Bach reported that working with fellow
Cuban refugees or other minorities
negatively affected earnings, while
working under a Cuban boss had no effect
of earni9ngs. By contrast, Wilson and
Portes reported that participation in the
enclave gave rise to advantages in
occupational prestige, and occupational
prestige associated positively with
earnings.

21. Therefore, participating in the enclave,
was argued to increase earnings
indirectly. The importance of this latter
finding was that it countered the ecological
hypothesis of assimilation theory, which
contends that continued spatial
segregation in terms of the labour market,
residential patterns, and such limits the
upward mobility of ethnic groups.

22.  Self identity may be fluid, but the extent to
which ethnic identity is optional varies by
race. Waters (1994) finds that darkskinned West Indian children have
severely limited options with regard to
ethnic identity. This obtains despite the
efforts of many West Indians to resist
being identified as African American
(Waters 1999, Vickerman 1999) and to
maintain distinct residential enclaves
(Crowder 1999).

23. Similarly , middle-class and affluent
second-generation Asian Indians with dark
skin find it difficult to avoid racial
marginality despite efforts to convey
alternative identities (Rajagopal 2000).
This lack of options contrasts sharply with
lighter-skinned groups, particularly biracial
children who have one Asian parent (Xie
and Gotette 1997)
Not only may middle-class standing fail to

24. Deflect racial labelling, children experiencing
the marginality of straddling two or more
cultural contexts suffer emotionally, and
this fuel intergenerational conflict
(Rangaswamy 2000, Rambaut 1994, Zhou
and Bankston 1998).

25. Conclusion

The literature addressing ethnic
boundaries and identity in plural societies
focuses on social network and the social
networks and the social capital derived
from them. Social networks that provided
scarce resources to a wide spectrum of
the ethnic community are highly useful to
in-group members. To the extent valuable
resources are generated within the group,

26. relatively closed ethnic boundaries can
protect these resources by preserving
their use for in-group members. But when
ethnic networks appropriate resources,
such as access to jobs, from outside the
community, ethnic boundaries become
more porous because important spheres
of life, such as work, necessitate greater
involvement with outsiders.

27. The Utility of Pluralism
M.B Leon and W. Leon (1977).
 One of the most persistent set of criticism
concerns Smith’s contention that the plural
society is a separate kind of society that
cannot be understood through social
stratification theory and can be analyzed
in no other terms than those Smith
proposes. Such critics as Rubin and
others have taken issue with the idea that
colonial societies, multicultural societies

28.  Multiracial societies, plural societies, or
any other kind of society requires a unique
body of sociological theory. They argue
that social stratification applies to all
societies (or at least to all complex
societies) and is equally relevant with the
admittedly complex reality of pluralism.

29. Political Pluralism
 Smith’s preoccupation with pluralism
as a
political phenomenon, along with his
conviction that the section that
monopolizes political control will not
readily relinquish it, apparently underlies
his lack of concern with such alternative
routes to modification as acculturation and
economic interdependence.

30. Conclusion
 The pivot around which M.G Smith’s
writings seem to revolve is that plural
societies are first and foremost politically
different from non-plural societies. They
are maintained in politically different
ways, by means of implicit or explicit
threat of force or its use, and are therefore
characterized by potential or actual
internal conflict.

31.  Short of the unlikely eventuality that the
politically dominant and privileged section
will agree to modify or abolish its own
privileged position, change may be
expected to result from violent pressure
exerted by less privileged groups.