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Copyright of Social Anthropology / Anthropologie Sociale is the property of Berghahn Books and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article evaluates the evolution of the Cuban economic reform embodied in the Guidelines on the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution. Almost a decade after its approval, we assess progress and shortcomings while pointing out obstacles for the process to advance, together with suggestions on courses of action to continue the reform. After referring to previous attempts of economic change, we analyze the advancement of the Guidelines until 2019, a key year for Cuba since a new Constitution was approved. For this assessment were examined macroeconomic indicators, policy makers' public discourse and academic papers published by renowned scholars of Cuban economy and society. The analysis of the international situation was considered with an emphasis on Cuba's condition as Small Island Developing State -a factor that has often been underestimated by policy makers as well as by critics of the Cuban model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an empirical analysis of constitutional reform and popular participation in illiberal democratic states like Cuba. Topics include the 2019 Cuban constitutional referendum, the role of the Partido Comunista Cubano (PCC) in crafting the amended Constitution, and the normative structures of the Cuban political-economic system.

El texto analiza el proceso de reformas en Cuba (2006–2018) desde un marco específico: los regímenes de bienestar. Con ese lente, se exploran tres ámbitos: mercados laborales, políticas sociales y ordenamientos familiares. El análisis contribuye a mostrar cómo se están configurando las relaciones entre Estado, mercado y sociedad, y cómo ello incide en los órdenes de género. Específicamente, interesa indagar si el proceso de cambios en Cuba tiene un impacto específico en las mujeres, qué tipo de impacto y cómo se produce. El texto argumenta que los cambios recientes en Cuba están generizados en su planteamiento, despliegue y resultados, y que reproducen importantes desigualdades. The article analyzes the Cuban reform process (2006–2018) from a specific framework: welfare regimes. With this lens, three areas are explored: labor markets, social policies, and family orders. The analysis helps show how the relationships of state, market, and society are being shaped, and how this affects the Cuban gender "orders," or hierarchy. Specifically, it will be interesting to investigate whether the change process in Cuba is having a specific impact on women; if so, what kind of impact; and how it is produced. The article argues that recent changes in Cuba are gendered in their approach, deployment, and results, and it reproduces important inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses topics featured within the issue including the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the revolutionary leaders in Cuba, and the Red Barrial Afrodescendiente (RBA) network.

To be a black revolutionary as defined by someone who fights for black equality, progress and power, has always accompanied a contentious relationship with the Cuban state. Nonetheless, those that are defined as black revolutionaries are often those that are aligned with the state. I call for a wider definition of this term to include those outside of Cuba, those that are independent and critical of the state as well as Cubans that remain in private spaces, outside of the public sphere. In addition, I ask what have been the boundaries since 1959 in which black revolutionaries have had to live, act and dialogue? The growth of social media and increased networks coupled with the worsening of racial inequalities due to economic reforms suggest that the state is at a critical juncture. Black progress will not come without resistance from the ground and these new, independent dialogues and private spaces serve as the foundation to black resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international community is getting more and more involved in the energy management not only due to the depletion of energy resources, but also due to pollution. There are various solutions to these problems, with political economy being one of them. This is why this work was aimed at showing that political economy plays a leading role in appraising the energy management. The results showed that political economy serves cognitive, methodological, ideological, and practical purposes which have different, but closely related concepts. It was demonstrated that possible solutions suggested by governments could have social cost. However, the Cuban government's solution is to guarantee that the whole Cuban population has permanent access to the energy they need, and at the same time to limit the effects that energy consumption has on the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation titled The interpretations of the phenomenon of the Cuban emigration by the national cinematography of fiction (1959-2014) has like objective the accomplishment of a characterological study on the interpretations of the phenomenon of the Cuban emigration by the national cinematography of fiction (1959- 2014). For this, it was necessary to resort to historical factors to determine the main definitions around the terms of migration, its characterization in the case of Cuba, as well as the main aspects that distinguish the phenomenon under study. From here, the interpretations of the phenomenon of Cuban emigration by the national fiction cinematography in three periods were analyzed, starting from its relation with our migratory reality, through some of the main films that address it and the differences or similarities that they possess each other [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the ode to Niagara on transition to high Romanticism by poet Jose Maria Heredia. Topics discussed include immediate relevance for Cubans of Heredia's generation who chafed under Spanish rule; displaced Cubans for political reasons at various points in the island's long history of liberation struggles; and generation of early 19th century travelers and travel writers for whom literary descriptions of Niagara were turning the falls into what Elizabeth McKinsey.

The experiences of Latin American countries are not fully incorporated into current debates concerning the age of mass migration, even though 13 million Europeans migrated to the region between 1870 and 1930. This survey draws together different aspects of the Latin America immigration experience. Its main objective is to rethink the role of European migration to the region, addressing several major questions in the economics of migration: whether immigrants were positively selected from their sending countries, how immigrants assimilated into the host economies, the role of immigration policies, and the long‐run effects of immigration. Immigrants came from the economically backward areas of southern and eastern Europe, yet their adjustment to the host labour markets in Latin America seems to have been successful. The possibility of rapid social upgrading made Latin America attractive for European immigrants. Migrants were positively selected from origin according to literacy. The most revealing aspect of new research is showing the positive long‐run effects that European immigrants had in Latin American countries. The political economy of immigration policies deserves new research, particularly for Brazil and Cuba. The case of Argentina shows a more complex scenario than the classic representation of landowners constantly supporting an open‐door policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cuban State, aware of the meaning of climate change for the sustainable development of the country, designed a plan to confront climate change called "Task Life", in which all sectors of society and especially the local authorities of the Power Popular together with citizens. tobleIn this paper, reference is made to the preparation of the cadres for the implementation of this plan, which consists of five actions and eleven tasks. The Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA) is the governing institution of the Life Task, has the responsibility of guiding the institutions and offering information and knowledge for the preparation of all the actors, especially the cadres . The information, research results and regulations issued by the CITMA, contribute to the preparation of the cadres. To fulfill the objectives proposed in this plan, trained cadres are needed to guarantee the active participation of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research characterizes Fidel Castro's speeches on journalism and communication between 1959 and 2008, time in which his political mandate elapsed. It describes the communicative context in which discourses are inserted and discusses strategies and discursive structures present in them, as forms of legitimization of power that -as in so many other societies- use dominant groups. The results indicate the use of strategies of positive self-presentation of the power elites, framed in a concept of "the revolutionary", and negative presentation of all those social actors that manifest models of society contrary to their ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the theoretical conceptions defined for the new Cuban economic and social Model. It also warns about how difficult is to implement the economic reform. The main objective of the paper is to propose an approach for teaching "Political Economy of Socialism", which develops the ability of critical reflection in University students, instead of the assimilation of theories which validity can be limited to historical changing context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews some of the most widespread thesis on the early political transition to socialism in Cuba, as from Marx, Engels and Lenin main hypothesis that explain other contexts, and which potentially may contribute to a better understanding of the current Latin American revolutionary processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the history of US-Cuban relations. It identifies the modest but significant changes in that policy brought about by negotiations during the Barack Obama and Raul Castro Administrations. It then examines the policy reversals initiated by President Trump during his first year in office. The paper suggests that US policy toward Cuba is characteristic of US foreign policy generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Anthropology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ever since the Cuban Revolution of 1959 Cuba has faced hostility from its northern neighbour, the United States. An unrelenting US campaign led to Cuba's expulsion from the now discredited Organisation of American States, and it has faced an economic, commercial and financial blockade since 1962. This policy has failed. Cuba has developed a global and strategic foreign policy which with limited resources allows it to be a very active component of the international scene. Cuba's foreign policy is independent and active in defending just causes and the right of each country to adopt its own decisions, without external interference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to know the contribution of the innovation system to local development management in the Perico municipality -Matanzas province, Cuba-, a systematization exercise was carried out in the period 2013-2016. For such purpose, interviews were made to key actors, who were identified and classified according to the objective, the functions and interest of the study, as well as according to the practices implemented in the farms. The information was processed using the method of divergence and recurrence analysis1. In addition, the productive diversity, mercantile production and incomes of the involved farms; the flexibility of the current legislation with regards to the economic activity; the establishment of innovations, private and state initiative for innovation; the participatory processes and commercialization of local products, were evaluated. The incorporation of good practices of the innovation system allowed an increase of the farm mercantile production and incomes, which was favored by the direct relation between the originated transformations regarding diversity and practice, and the economic-productive indicators. The practices promoted from the local innovation system have allowed the modification of the ways to disseminate knowledge, by opening exchange and innovation spaces that stimulate the consolidation of alliances and links among the local sectors. However, no effective mechanisms of mobilization which would allow to overcome the citizens' lack of confidence and discouragement were achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the way that groups of armed men used force and violence to shape economic production and national politics in early twentieth-century Cuba. In the decades immediately after independence, Cuba underwent a series of transformations tied to US imperial control, the expansion of the sugar industry, and the rise of a diverse working class. The island was also the site of violent political conflicts over control of the state. Present in all of these processes were groups of armed men with conflicting ties to political authority and private enterprises. US soldiers, members of the Cuban army, and a militarized police force called the Rural Guard bore arms alongside private sugar company guards, volunteer militias, and vigilante groups to protect property, discipline workers, and wage political warfare. The use of violence by both state and non-state actors was symptomatic of larger ambiguities in the source of political power, the functioning of democracy, and the very existence of Cuban national sovereignty. This article employs the concept of paramilitarism to understand these processes. In Cuban politics, as in its economic production, there was never a perfect correlation between an armed man's relationship to the state and the legitimacy of his violence. But violence was not entirely random. Black individuals—both Cuban and immigrant—were most vulnerable to the paramilitary violence that went unpunished as it shaped the world of politics and production in the Cuban republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new media scenarios, the social, economic and political context of the country, and the need to transform the press model to give greater participation to the audience, make in Cuba the studies on agenda setting have been transformed to the particular circumstances that govern The national media system. One of the areas in which changes have been made is the methodology to deepen this process. Therefore, the present study aims to propose a methodology to develop studies of agenda setting in Cuba based on the analysis of relations between political, media and public agendas, and the factors that affect it. The methodology is developed around three important areas for the agenda setting studies: the statistical correlation between the objects and attributes, the influences on the media content, and the contingent conditions. The main contributions of the proposal lie in the possibility of implementing contextualized research to the Cuban reality, whose characteristics and evolution make it a complex system with certain particularities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2017, Cuba prepared itself for a momentous change that was coming in 2018: the first time in 59 years that a Castro would not be leading the government. No one expects Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, whom the National Assembly elected as Cuba's president in April 2018, to chart a course dramatically different from the one President Raúl Castro had established. However, given the economic, demographic, and international political challenges Cuba faced in 2017, the year had to be viewed as the end of an era. Change is inevitable in order to sustain the Cuban Revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores political potentiality of online civic conversation for the constitution of alternative public spheres in Cuba. The analysis of the comments on migration in the Cubadebate site is articulated with a critical examination of the environment and the wider social context surrounding messages, in order to identifying how the interlocutors define common problems, how they explain moral premises supporting their opinions and how they establish an ethical relationship with otherness. It became clear that the appropriation of virtual spaces by Cubans for conversations about problems that affect them, even in mainstream media, contributes to the reconfiguration of their possibilities of autonomous action in the transformative scenario of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explain the resilience of nondemocracies, political science scholars have pointed to the international cooperation of authoritarian regimes. But as authoritarian regimes seek to find international partners and construct alliances, how much is it about regime type, really? Analyzing the case of Cuba's singleparty regime, this contribution argues that international cooperation is not necessarily defined by regime-type similarity. Instead, a broader concept of political like-mindedness can derive from constructivist policies, particularly rooted in identities of the Global South. Moreover, the Cuban case also shows that nondemocratic regimes can gain additional strength from engagement with governments and nongovernment actors in democratic countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the attempts of the U.S. to control Cuba by destabilising the Cuban government. Topics discussed include measurement of human rights breaching, violation of the human rights of Cubans in the form of the blockade that qualifies as an act of genocide and International laws for the trade of medicines and food in Cuba.

The Unconventional War (GNC) has become relevant in the current conditions of our country when imperialism, through means and stealth tactics, tries to carry out its purposes of domination, hence any study aimed at strengthening the political culture and the Ideological firmness is a necessity in higher education centers, especially in those of military education. The purpose of this research is to expose the ideological and moral policy measures in combatants that fulfill their mission in confronting the armed insurgency in a CNG scenario, based on the principle that the Ideological Political Work carried out with combatants facing this type of war, merits profound changes in conceptions, forms, procedures and means to achieve influence in young people in training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I analyze the effects of the Cuban exodus in 1980 known as the Mariel boatlift, in Guillermo Rosales's novel Boarding Home (1987). I argue that Mariel and the so-called marielitos are portrayed in the novel as offering a more complex view of an event that was stigmatized both by the Cuban government as well as by the American media. Marielitos, treated as the "scum" of society, were expelled from the island during a cleansing campaign ("basurización of the other" in Castillo Durante's words). As a result, their abjection (Kristeva) was reflected in the spatiality of the margin: in the boarding home in the United States to which the protagonist was sent, and in the area of Miami known as Little Havana, where many of these immigrants lived. I propose to study the boarding home and Little Havana as heterotopic places (Foucault) in which the two utopias (and dystopias) involving the revolution and exile are distorted. I conclude that Rosales appeals to literature in order to react against the invisibility and/or stigma of the exodus, turning it into an act of defiance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the rising inequality in Cuba, focusing on financial crisis that was followed by the fall of Soviet Union. It states that Cuba faces issues concerning race, class, property rights, labor systems, and culture and identity. It notes the lack of economic development and U.S. President Donald Trump's rollback on the relations between U.S. and Cuba.

Introduction: With the Triumph of the Revolution a significant boost was given to the improvement of the living conditions of the citizens. History Will Absolve Me was the programmatic platform of social policy undertaken since then, where universal access to health and education was given to all the people and the system of assistance and social security was developed among other strategies. The territorial space is where this social policy is materialized every day, hence the importance of promoting true development at this level that has an impact on the well-being of citizens. The public administration has the great responsibility of guaranteeing with the required quality all public services and especially those that have to do with the social policy of the Revolution, for that reason the role and leadership that the administration must assume in the local development at the level municipal in the country. Objective: Characterize the relationship between public administration and local development in Cuba. Methods: Documentary review, logical historical analysis. Conclusions: The municipality is the basic level within the administrative structure in Cuba and the instance to carry out a strategy of local development that allows to integrate the projects and processes that take place in the territory, for it requires legal personality and financial autonomy. The public administration has and should lead development at a local level, integrating all the actors into a strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management by means of processes is an effective way to raise results in the local public administration performance. This paper suggests an approach to the map of processes for local public administration management, as a result of analyzing contributions of different authors, the study of models and trends, normative experiences from the last 50 years, as well as the study of the plans endorsed for local public management improvement. Starting from a theoretical and epistemic formulation of this theme, the paper deepens into the Cuban local public administration, and a first approach to its processes map is presented, which is directed towards results. A procedure for identifying and defining processes in public local administration is added which is derived from the combination of different methods and techniques. This proposal contributes to the establishment of a management model for the Cuban local public administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the dominant interpretation of political development and cultural policy in Castro's Cuba, artists and writers now enjoy more autonomy and freedom than ever before, and more than any other group in society. The literature suggests this is due to two factors: the relentless and extraordinary insistence of artists and writers on gaining more "space" to express themselves, and the capacity of La Revolución (i.e. the political leadership) to amend the totalitarian aberration of the past and "reinvent" itself. This article proposes a different interpretation. First, it explains how the pendulum between "closing" and "opening" in cultural policy is not new, nor is it a reliable indicator of liberalization. Rather, it is part of the governing strategy of the regime. Second, I propose that artists and writers typically seek recognition by the state and participation "within the revolution" at least as much as they want autonomy or freedom. Según la interpretación dominante sobre el desarrollo político y la política cultural en la Cuba de Castro, los artistas y escritores gozan ahora de mayor autonomía y libertad que nunca antes, y más que cualquier otro grupo en la sociedad. La literatura sugiere que esto se debe a dos factores: la incesante y extraordinaria insistencia de los artistas y escritores en ganar más "espacio" para expresarse, y la capacidad de "La Revolución" (es decir el liderazgo político) de enmendar la aberración totalitaria del pasado y "rein-ventarse." Este artículo propone una interpretación diferente. En primer lugar, explica cómo el péndulo entre "cerrar" y "abrir" en la política cultural no es nuevo, y tampoco es un indicador fiable de liberalización. Más bien, es parte de la estrategia del régimen. En segundo lugar, propongo que los artistas y escritores buscan el reconocimiento por el Estado y la participación "dentro de la revolución" por lo menos tanto como quieren la autonomía o la libertad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colonialism, imperialism and anti-imperialism have been decisive in shaping Cuban political identity for 150 years. US determination to control Cuba, consistent with the Monroe Doctrine, had a strong economic rationale even before Spain was defeated in the War of Independence in 1898. Debate raged between Cubans who aspired to true independence and an annexationalist minority, who favoured union with the US. The Platt Amendment imposed on Cuba by the US in 1903 ‘reduced the independence and sovereignty of the Cuban republic to a myth’. Between then and the Revolution of 1959 Cuba was effectively first a protectorate and then neo-colony of the US, which dominated the Cuban economy, politics and foreign policy. Tackling the terrible socioeconomic and political effects of Cuba’s subjugation under the Spanish empire and then US imperialism necessitated a radical transformation of the Cuban economy, political institutions and power structures. The transition to socialism inevitably meant confronting US imperialism – and vice versa. Since 1959, US imperialism, with its powerful allies in the right-wing exile community based in Miami, have relentlessly tried to destroy the Revolution and Cuban socialism. The issue of imperialism remains key today, in the post-Fidel, President Trump era. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The United States is the only major industrialized nation that restricts trade with Cuba. Although President Obama issued several executive orders that have facilitated limited trade (and President Trump has scaled some back), an embargo remains in place, and by law, Congress cannot lift it until, among other things, the Cuban government commits to democratization and human rights reform. Unfortunately, the Cuban and U.S. governments fundamentally disagree on the definition of "human rights," and neither side has shown a willingness to compromise. Meanwhile, although some U.S. investors clamor to join their European and Canadian counterparts in expanding operations in Cuba, many have an understandable concern regarding the rule of law and expropriation in a communist country. Bilateral investment treaties aim to address those concerns. After discussing the legal and political barriers to lifting the embargo, I propose a partial solution to the stalemate on human rights, which will: (1) facilitate foreign direct investment in Cuba: (2) protect investor interests through a bilateral investment treaty; and (3) require an examination of human rights impacts on the lives of Cuban citizens before investors can receive the protection of the treaty. Specifically, I recommend the inclusion of human rights clauses in bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and investor-state dispute mechanisms as a condition precedent to lifting the embargo. My solution also requires "clean hands" so that investors seeking relief must provide proof that their business interests have not exacerbated or been complied in human rights abuses, rebut claims from stakeholders that their business interests have not exacerbated or been complied in human rights abuses, or both. Finally, I propose revisions to the 2016 U.S. National Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct to incorporate human rights requirements in future BITs and other investment vehicles going forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]