'We are growing Belize': modernisation and organisational change in the Mennonite settlement of Spanish Lookout, Belize

Carel Roessingh and Kees Boersma

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2011, vol. 14, issue 2, 171-189

Abstract: This article addresses the entrepreneurial and organisational activities of a specific Mennonite group in Belize called the Kleine Gemeinde community of Spanish Lookout. Building upon Christian beliefs, agricultural skills and a strong working ethos, this group was able to build up a stable, local economic network. The authors suggest that their collective resistance against other social groups and their day-to-day strictness lead to processes of 'selective modernity'. As we make clear in this chapter, the Kleine Gemeinde Mennonites identity contains elements of ethnicity and partial exclusion based upon religious motives. The relative successful economic progression of this group is a sign of both their working ethos inspired by their religious background, and their will to progress and expand.

Keywords: religious organisations; selective modernity; family networks; families; Mennonites; religious communities; Anabaptists; religion; Christianity; modernisation; organisational change; religious settlements; Spanish Lookout; Belize; British Honduras; Central America; Kleine Gemeinde; Christian beliefs; agricultural skills; work ethos; agriculture; farming; local networks; economic networks; collective resistance; social groups; strictness; ethnicity; partial exclusion; religious motives; economic progress; religious backgrounds; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; entrepreneurs; entrepreneurship. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:14:y:2011:i:2:p:171-189

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