Explorations of social suffering and violence in a bipartisan political context : the case of Jamaica

Abstract

Social suffering and urban violence are significant factors for Kingston’s urban poor communities. This study explores these concepts within Jamaica’s bipartisan political environment. The foundation of this project is the view that Jamaica’s colonial past has concretised a two-party political system leading to political tribalism and violence. Engaging the lived realities of 24 Jamaicans, the study aims to improve the complicated reality of social suffering and violence in urban inner-city communities while navigating political power. This investigation delves deeply into the socio-historical consequences of two-party politics and tribalism for the people who live in these places. This study takes an interpretive phenomenological analytical approach. The study engaged in-depth semi-structured and key informant interviews as the primary methods of data collection. Naturalistic observations were engaged as a complementary tool to best engage the methods social actors use to make meaning in their daily realities. The project focuses on two communities aligned to the two dominant political parties in Jamaica: the Jamaica Labour Party and the People’s National Party. The study offers a novel conceptual position that political communities in Jamaica operate as landed islands, creating endemic government, economic, and social systems. The study examines the relational and mitigation strategies that the urban poor employ to respond to endemic systems. The study notes social actors use biomedical and sensory parameters to offer a robust description of poverty. Finally, the study centers social suffering as a prerequisite of these spaces – where social actors embrace suffering as a condition of landed islands.