Island Futures: Caribbean Survival in the Anthropocene, will be published by Duke University Press in November 2020. https://www.dukeupress.edu/island-futures
In Island Futures Mimi Sheller delves into the ecological crises and reconstruction challenges affecting the entire Caribbean region during a time of climate catastrophe. Drawing on fieldwork on postearthquake reconstruction in Haiti, flooding on the Haitian-Dominican border, and recent hurricanes, Sheller shows how ecological vulnerability and the quest for a "just recovery" in the Caribbean emerge from specific transnational political, economic, and cultural dynamics. Because foreigners are largely ignorant of Haiti's political, cultural, and economic contexts, especially the historical role of the United States, their efforts to help often exacerbate inequities. Caribbean survival under ever-worsening environmental and political conditions, Sheller contends, demands radical alternatives to the pervasive neocolonialism, racial capitalism, and US military domination that have perpetuated what she calls the "coloniality of climate." Sheller insists that alternative projects for Haitian reconstruction, social justice, and climate resilience—and the sustainability of the entire region—must be grounded in radical Caribbean intellectual traditions that call for deeper transformations of transnational economies, ecologies, and human relations writ large.
Praise
“An accomplished and brilliant scholar, Mimi Sheller writes with imagination and insight, a deep theoretical sophistication, and an eye toward the configuration of new epistemic visions and approaches grounded in Caribbean realities. I can't think of any other analysis of the contemporary Haitian and Caribbean context quite like this important book.” — Laurent Dubois, coauthor of Freedom Roots: Histories from the Caribbean
“In this timely and timeless book, Mimi Sheller offers a long overdue critical historical analysis of the contemporary state of infrastructure and climate change in the Caribbean at a time when its environmental vulnerabilities and dependencies could not be more apparent. Island Futures is an outstanding and groundbreaking book set to provoke and sustain dialogues across disciplines and beyond.” — Gina Athena Ulysse, author of Because When God Is Too Busy: Haiti, Me, and the World