The Campesino-to-Campesino agroecology movement of ANAP in Cuba: social process methodology in the construction of sustainable peasant agriculture and food sovereignty

Agroecology has played a key role in helping Cuba survive the crisis caused by the collapse of the socialist bloc in Europe and the tightening of the US trade embargo. Cuban peasants have been able to boost food production without scarce and expensive imported agricultural chemicals by first substituting more ecological inputs for the no longer available imports, and then by making a transition to more agroecologically integrated and diverse farming systems. This was possible not so much because appropriate alternatives were made available, but rather because of the Campesino-a-Campesino (CAC) social process methodology that the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) used to build a grassroots agroecology movement. This paper was produced in a ‘self-study’ process spearheaded by ANAP and La Via Campesina, the international agrarian movement of which ANAP is a member. In it we document and analyze the history of the Campesino-to-Campesino Agroecology Movement (MACAC), and the significantly increased contribution of peasants to national food production in Cuba that was brought about, at least in part, due to this movement. Our key findings are (i) the spread of agroecology was rapid and successful largely due to the social process methodology and social movement dynamics, (ii) farming practices evolved over time and contributed to significantly increased relative and absolute production by the peasant sector, and (iii) those practices resulted in additional benefits including resilience to climate change.     

Foreign Investment and Trade in Cuban Development: A 50-Year Reassessment with Emphasis on the Post-1990 Period

This article provides a 50-year reassessment of foreign investment and trade in Cuba and locates this analysis within Cuban debates on development and the economics of transition. Transformations contextualised in these debates cover three periods. The 1959–1989 period was characterised by nationalisations and expropriations, the imposition of the US trade embargo, and the trade and economic assistance agreements signed with the Soviet Union. The Special Period crisis emerged in the 1990s and Cuba had to turn to foreign investment and alternative trade options while continuing to reject the adoption of open regionalism and neoliberal policies. The 2005–2008 period was characterised by Cuba's incorporation into the Bolivarian Alternative, a new regional integration model.     

十月革命前朝鲜人向俄国远东地区迁移述评

俄国占领中国黑龙江以北、乌苏里江以东土地后,急需大量劳动力对该地区进行开发。1864年第一批朝鲜人越过边界来到俄国远东,此后陆续有大批朝鲜人进入远东。他们为远东的开发做出了不可忽视的贡献,特别是善于从事农耕的朝鲜人开垦了大片荒地,促进了远东农业的发展。十月革命前朝鲜人向远东移民的历史可分为两个时期,以1895年的中日甲午战争为界,每个时期又可划分为几个阶段。     

明代关西七卫内迁去向和内迁人数探

由于多种原因,明政府在嘉峪关外设立的七个卫所相继内迁,失去了拱卫西北边疆的作用。在内迁诸卫中,安定、阿端、曲先、罕东无内迁人数统计,沙州卫、赤斤蒙古卫、哈密卫和罕东左卫有内迁人数统计。本文据《明史》、《殊域周咨录》和《边政考》等史料,对明代关西七卫内迁去向和内迁人数进行了探讨。     

论浙南侨乡移民意识的生成、作用及其提升

本文借助社会网络理论，阐述了浙南侨乡所特有的精神产物——移民意识，解析了它产生的社会历史条件，论述了它对侨乡社会各方面所发生的作用和影响，同时，也分析了它有待进一步提升的内容及途径，以助侨乡可持续发展。     

超越边缘:一个东南侨乡回族社区文化建设的人类学考察

从一家到一族、从弱小到壮大、从经商务农到读书入仕,陈埭丁氏回族历经数百年调适和变迁,终于从外来小姓变为本地望族。借助侨乡优势,开展社区文化建设推动社区经济发展,依靠特色文化提升自身形象,超越边缘,陈埭丁氏回族成功地开辟了一条属于自己的文化之旅。     

The Silent Scream of the Locas in Mariposas en el andamio

This article explores the way cross-dressing has been used as a tool of dissent by queer subjects in the film Mariposas en el andamio . This documentary not only advocates the integration of homosexuals in the realm of Cuban society, but also evidences the establishment of a culture of transvestism on the island. The ultimate intention of Mariposas is to posit the male-to-female transvestite as a figure that contests hegemonic heteronormativity as well as the machista values predicated by the Cuban revolution. The film not only opposes sexist heteronormativity (machismo in Latin American societies), but also establishes a link between homosexuality and cross-dressing practices in Latin America, as transvestism becomes an externalisation of these individuals' homosexual identity. Furthermore, the film seems to suggest that the transvestites feel trapped in the wrong biological sex. The second focus of this article is on the geographical spaces where such transvestic practices are permissible on the island. Although the film makes a case for a more open and inclusive Cuban society, it fails to show that same-sex desire and cross-dressing can be played out outside the neighbourhood's canteen in which the show takes place. Finally, I intend to show how camp becomes the best strategy for the transvestites to challenge the idea of homosexuals as anti-revolutionary figures as well as Latin American heteronormativity. To this end, I engage in a study of a strategy of gender subversion that I call 'camp fuck'. This type of campness de-constructs the idea of a bourgeois camp to transform it into a more political device, which permits the contesting of heteronormativity through elements that have traditionally been regarded as frivolous and apolitical.     

Cuban Anti‐slavery Narrative through Postcolonial Eyes: Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s Sab

Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s Sab (1841) has come to be regarded as an iconic work in the canon of nineteenth‐century Cuban fiction, celebrated as much for its literary pedigree as for its radical combination of anti‐slavery and feminist ideas. Yet it has been the subject of very divergent critical appraisals. This essay sets out to breathe new life into Avellaneda’s novel by interpreting it through a postcolonial optic. Drawing on ideas from the scholarship of Edward Said and Frantz Fanon, as well as the ideas of literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, these pages explore the implications of its nationalist, racial, sexual and feminist politics for Sab’s anti‐slavery meaning. This postcolonial reading provides a possible solution for the conflicts between its various interpretations.     

非法跨国移民集群化现象成因探析

非法移民活动作为非正常的国际移民行为,扰乱了一个国家正常的出入境秩序。无序的非法流动给社会和国际交往造成了巨大的负面影响,不仅可能使偷渡者付出生命的代价,而且损害了国家的形象。在此,以福建沿海某些地区的非法移民问题为例,结合越轨社会学中的相关理论,从社会学视角,对该地区集群化偷渡行为产生的原因进行分析。     

Society for Latin American Studies 2004 Plenary Lecture The Return of Cuba to Latin America: The End of Cuban Exceptionalism?

Comparing Cuban history and contemporary circumstances to those in the rest of the region, this article challenges the idea of Cuban exceptionalism. The last four decades have seen Cuba move away from typical Latin American patterns such as economic and geographical inequalities. The Revolution has not been able, however, to reverse a historical dependence on external financing nor has it resolved racial inequities. While the Revolution did establish an unusually effective political apparatus, it did not use this opportunity to nurture democracy. As the social welfare advances of the revolution erode, Cuba resembles the rest of the continent ever more and reflects the central problems facing the region.