Inclusion within the new Constitution: the role of Social Entrepreneurship in Cuba

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

As economic changes in Cuba give way to an emerging private sector, there are mixed expectations from Cubans and the international community. A variety of actors and motivations are driving activity in Cuba’s national private sector. These actors comprise a heterogeneous group of micro, small, medium and sometimes quasi-large companies. At the micro-level, some companies are enterprising at a scale that does not go beyond elemental survival activity. Small and medium sized businesses have more robust operations that may employ people and control private capital. Larger companies are emerging with more elaborate organizational strategies and practices. Although these actors may vary in their levels of activity, they are uniquely Cuban in their expressions of enterprising and entrepreneurship.
In the last 25 years, academics have been exploring ways a Cuban regulatory framework could serve the potentially contradictory, yet also potentially mutually supportive elements of the state sector and a more robust, formalized private sector. So far, there are no words in the new Constitution regarding how to treat this topic. There have been just a few institutions and some local development projects successfully applying ideas that could be classified as a Cuban model of social entrepreneurship. This panel defines the elements of such a model through analysis that includes (1) current status of the Cuban private sector, (2) potential to adopt/avoid lessons from the international community, (3) theoretical approaches and practical mechanisms that could bring a balance between private sector development and a social-oriented efficient business model that is uniquely Cuban.

Sub Track

• Economics and Development

Session Organizer

• Juan Alejandro Triana Barros, Universidad de La Habana

Chair

• Jonathan D Shefner, University of Tennessee

Discussant

• Emily M Medley

Individual Presentations

• Cuba as an alternative for Social Entreprenuership: international experiences from Latin American countries - Jonathan D Shefner, University of Tennessee

• Inclusion, inequalities and opportunities: A glance to the Cuban Private Sector: - Juan Alejandro Triana Barros, Universidad de La Habana

• The Statist Model of Cuban Entrepreneurship: How “social” is it? - Emily M Medley

• System of pensions and the Private Sector in Cuba: An opportunity out of the crisis - Henry Colina Hernández