Tim MacNeill

Development as Imperialism Power and the Perpetuation of Poverty in Afro-Indigenous Communities of Coastal Honduras

The Garifuna people of Trujillo, Honduras, wryly call it la maldición—the curse. Despite the expansive resources of the area and the sheer amount of valuable commodities that have left from its shores, most of the local people remain poor, with little access to sanitation, reliable electricity, literacy, security, or employment. This study explores the ways in which private tourism development projects conspire with national and international politics and economics to perpetuate la maldición. An analysis of 40 qualitative interviews, three focus groups, and survey data from the Trujillo area is combined with secondary historical, economic, and political data regarding the national and international processes in which local dynamics are embedded. Although past research has shown it to be possible for development projects to be designed in a way that benefits indigenous populations, in the case of Trujillo, Honduras, macroimperial, mesoimperial and microimperial processes conspire to assure that such projects exploit and marginalize instead of include and benefit local people.

Ethnic Discrimination in the Lab: Evidence of Statistical and Taste-Based Discrimination

Using a lab experiment that simulates a labor market, we investigate racial discrimination for employee selection. We find discrimination against Blacks persists even when information about candidates’ past performance/abilities is known. The experiment design allows us to observe within-subject variation in discrimination based on different available information about candidates, which helps distinguish between statistical and taste-based discrimination. We find evidence of discrimination by Non-Blacks against Blacks whenever race is salient. Some hiring discrimination against Blacks is statistical, since it is based on distrust of applicants’ self-reported abilities, and is also present in the discrimination of Blacks against their own group. But discrimination by Non-Blacks against Blacks is likely taste-based as it endures when more accurate information about abilities is known and even when such discrimination is costly. We suggest that the institutional and social climate may shape the prevalence of this type of discrimination.

Choosing a Colleague in the Lab: Evidence of Statistical and Taste-Based Discrimination

Using a lab experiment that simulates a labor market, we investigate racial discrimination for employee selection. We find discrimination against Blacks persists even when information about candidates’ past performance/abilities is known. The experiment design allows us to observe within-subject variation in discrimination based on different available information about candidates, which helps distinguish between statistical and taste-based discrimination. We find evidence of discrimination by Non-Blacks against Blacks whenever race is salient. Some hiring discrimination against Blacks is statistical, since it is based on distrust of applicants’ self-reported abilities, and is also present in the discrimination of Blacks against their own group. But discrimination by Non-Blacks against Blacks is likely taste-based as it endures when more accurate information about abilities is known and even when such discrimination is costly. We suggest that the institutional and social climate may shape the prevalence of this type of discrimination.

Culturally sustainable development: Maya culture, indigenous institutions, and alternative development in Guatemala

Recent scholarship has highlighted the ways in which new models of international and community development have been emerging in Latin America. Many of these have been associated with the idea of indigeneity. This article is meant to contribute to the larger attempt to understand this new turn in development thinking by studying one such model—enacted on a community level under the moniker of “culturally sustainable development” by a Maya organization in Guatemala. The case study and institutional ethnography exemplify the ways in which community development can be culturally situated, yet broadly informed. It also illuminates how the post-Washington consensus development policy environment provides opportunities for alternative indigenous development models at the same time as it imposes potentially debilitating constraints. Finally, it is argued that indigenous organizations often act in ways that are transmodern as opposed to anti-modern and that this transmodern positioning has allowed for some success in asserting alternative concepts of development and shaking free some of the snares of the global post-Washington consensus development policy climate.