Abstract
This research project will provide a thorough study of the 20th-century history of Suriname, departing from a theoretical framework based on the twin concepts of ethnicity and class and linking these ideas to theories on the more recent phenomena of transnationalism and state failure after decolonisation. The project consists of two thematic studies, with a socio-economic and a cultural focus respectively, and a synthesis which for the 20th century will replace the first classic in the country?s historiography, R.A.J. van Lier's 'Samenleving in een grensgebied' (1949). The synthesis will incorporate the findings of these studies as well as the extensive extant literature. This concluding monograph will include a substantial theoretical and comparative chapter on the contemporary validity of an updated concept of plural societies.