Conditional Freedoms
Non-State Labour in Cuba between Institutional Delegitimisation and Civic Recognition
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3278518 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Louis Thiemann (0000-0002-0995-9643, University of Kassel, corresponding author), Claudia González Marrero (0000-0003-4465-4770) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 599-622 |
| Publication date | 2023-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Latin American Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-216X • E-ISSN: 1469-767X |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0022216x2300069x |
| OpenAlex | W4386615138 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 10 |
During the height of its power over everyday life, between 1968 and 1993, the Cuban Communist Party outlawed virtually all non-state labour and exchange. Since then, however, its continuity in power has increasingly depended on devolution: shifting responsibility for the provision of basic goods and services from failing state enterprises back to the self-employed. The latter now produce the majority of food and basic products; receive most of the national income from tourism, remittances and foreign investment; and generate most new jobs. Nevertheless, they subsist under a subaltern regime of fragile and conditional freedoms. The article adapts James Scott's consideration for the subaltern's 'hidden transcripts' and agencies to contemporary Cuba. It analyses the unavoidability of informal and illegal practices for daily subsistence; their naturalisation in society in contrast with their delegitimisation as opportunistic self-enrichment in party-controlled media; and how the self-employed resist such judgements in favour of more conciliatory civic visions
Geography · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sociology · State (computer science) · Subaltern · Subsistence agriculture · Cuban History and Society · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Political Economy and Marxism
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |