Bøker av O. Alexander Miller

Colonial Capital Theory at Work: The Case of Jamaica contributes to our understanding of the emerging Caribbean and explains how some have intentionally used ';sociological imagination,' or the links between history and biography, to achieve prosperity. O. Alexander Miller examines how potential immigrants from the Caribbean employ sociological imagination and, by so doing, achieve sustained intergenerational financial prosperity even while living in relatively poor home societies. The book focuses on Jamaicans because they are one of the largest groups of black Caribbean immigrants in the United States and England. Furthermore, their home society illustrates how well sociological imagination works for those who employ it, even in a post-colonial society where there are historical disparities between the socially approved goals of society and the structural means for reaching those goals. Colonial Capital Theory at Work is written not only for scholars in sociology, migration studies and Caribbean studies, but also for members of immigrant communities, especially of African ancestry.

This work captures the compelling life stories of three types of Jamaican immigrants, including deportees, and examines how the transfer of different types of social capital affects their quests for social mobility.

The work adds to efforts underway from Feagin and Piven by challenging scholars to change the way we think about inequalities among ourselves, and to consider alternative ways to do sociology beyond regurgitatively publishing articles only to achieve the expected tenure. The book pays special attention to the importance of defeating meta-narratives and points out that the academy's emphasis on statistically based research does not permit the critique of meta-narratives which drive inequality within the academy and wider society.