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College Researchers Explore Role of Civil Society
2 February 2009
Two faculty members of the School of Social Sciences at The College of the Bahamas have completed a research paper on Challenges of Development and Sustainability in The Bahamas: The Role of Civil Society, analysing the part that civil society has played in the ultimate crafting of government policies regarding development.
Associate Sociology Professor Jessica Minnis and Assistant Psychology Professor Yvette Pintard-Newry investigated the case of Clifton Cay, the proposed gated community that stirred much controversy in the late 1990s and early 2000. They explored how civil society impacted the government’s eventual rejection of the investor’s proposal for the project on 554 acres of the historically and archaeologically rich land in western New Providence.
The study, which was started after a call was made for papers for the University of Prince Edward Island‘s Island Heritage Management Conference in Canada, took the pair six months to complete. The professors started in April, 2008 and finished in September of that year, just in time for the conference held in the following month.
The pair recently shared their findings at The College of the Bahamas’ first Research Edge Forum for the year held in January. Research Edge is a lecture series held once a month where faculty and students share presentations on matters of national and scholarly interest.
According to Pintard-Newry, who researched the theoretical aspect of civil society while Minnis researched the specifics of the Clifton Cay case, the role of civil society is important because it increases the value and empowerment of citizens.
"The World Bank and its shareholders recognize the critical role that civil society plays in helping to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development. And the World Bank’s projects focus on the capacity of the civil society for the empowerment of citizens living within the country," Pintard-Newry said at the Research Edge Forum.
"For small states, there is a unique challenge with regards to their insularity and size. Many small island states share a common colonial heritage and for these island states, including the Bahamas, civil society has been instrumental," she added.
The College faculty members specifically examined the "Coalition to Save Clifton" made up of civic and social groups, activists and individuals who were vehemently opposed to the development. The researchers found that this particular coalition model was instrumental in its influence on the eventual outcome.
"Clifton was a unique case because it involved about 500 plus acres of land at the [western] end of the island and people saw this as the last area that Bahamians in the community had in terms of beach access," Minnis said in a later interview.
"What we wanted to highlight is that civil society was successful, civil society can bring about change and that civil society was successful in the form of the coalition," she added.
The researchers found that the Clifton coalition followed the Advocacy Coalition Framework which suggests that "stakeholders are motivated within a coalition by a core belief system that holds the coalition together and it is the core belief…that the coalition wants to see as a policy."
"In the case of Clifton, you see a variety of governmental organizations, private organizations and individuals [lobbying] to shift government policy away from the idea of a gated community for something more meaningful, lasting and sustainable in the Bahamian context," Pintard-Newry said.
According to the paper, the Advocacy Coalition Framework looks at policy oriented learning which is learning and teaching within the various groups in the coalition.
"The idea of [policy] learning is having the transfer of beliefs and the transfer of knowledge from one group to the next to the point where it is a consistent, sustainable thought [and] continues over the lifespan of the group as well as the lifespan of the issue," Pintard-Newry said.
The Clifton Cay investors wanted to create a $400 million dollar luxury community which would have included marinas and canals.
According to their research, archaeological excavation exercises took place on the Clifton property in 1996 and 1998 by two archaeologists and it was discovered to be the site that housed three eras of Bahamian history.
According to Minnis, the paper has been resubmitted to the University of Prince Edward Island for publication and if selected will be included in the Island Heritage Management Conference’s proceedings document.
Research will be one of the primary thrusts of the anticipated University of The Bahamas whose mission will be to help support and drive national development.
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