ABSTRACT
The Caribbean is a developing region that has struggled to overcome corrupt governmental programs and agencies. Poverty and crime are commonplace, and a strong distrust of government is often present. This chapter presents a comparative case study of 20 rural fishers and 20 rural farmers in a unique Jamaican costal community and analyzes the role of bridging and linking social capital in contributing to household wealth variations. Social capital varies by occupation. There is a positive relationship between formal group membership and group diversity and wealth creation for fishers but a negative relationship for farmers. Bonding capital’s informal networks play an important role in both occupations. Bonding capital contributes to reduced vulnerability (caused by environmental and economic shocks) of poorer fishers and farmers and provides access to technological information, financial capital, and technology, which facilitates household wealth creation. These results suggest that developers and policy-makers need to incorporate the distinct network preferences of fishers and farmers, so that they may more precisely target the chronic pockets of poverty in rural Jamaica and throughout the region.
