Happy 2026

Happy 2026

1 January 2026

Yesterday we celebrated the turn of the year in grand style. It is unique and in no way inferior to any other celebration.

What kind of year was 2025? It was a year of political chaos, of a social system that is no longer sustainable, of growing geopolitical tensions — and at the same time the year in which we, as the smallest country ever, qualified for the 2026 World Cup.

What will 2026 bring? First and foremost, a continuation of 2025. We have entered a new era.

In the past, sociology was an important discipline. Since the 1980s, its prominence has steadily declined. You do not become wealthy by studying sociology. I do not know a single Curaçaoan student who is still studying the subject. Locally, we have hardly any active sociologists left, despite Curaçao having produced important thinkers such as René Römer and Hoetink.

This is precisely why it remains relevant to look at international sociologists who help us understand this new era, also from a Curaçaoan perspective.

Manuel Castells shows that power today no longer primarily resides in institutions, but in networks and flows of information. Formal equality means little when access to those networks is unequal. For small states with peripheral economies and digital dependence, this is not an abstract theory but an everyday reality.

Anthony Giddens reminds us that structures shape people, but do not exist outside of us. We reproduce them daily through our own actions, even when we seek change. This makes both victimhood and the belief that everything depends on individual willpower far too simplistic.

Pierre Bourdieu reveals how inequality persists because it is culturally legitimized through what is considered normal, respectable, or successful. Education, language, accent, taste, and credentials play a decisive role in this process, something that is also clearly recognizable at the local level.

What these thinkers share is the insight that societies continue to reproduce themselves, especially in times of crisis and transformation. That is why we still think in terms of race and colonialism, even when we explicitly oppose them.

I leave you with these reflections as a starting point for 2026.

Miguel Goede