A Comparative Analysis of Dynamics of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Cuba

International conference from 14th to 15th November at the TU Dresden, Institute of Sociology

This conference will focus on Cuba as a laboratory of social change. In particular, work and labour, cultural and gender-specific processes of the current crisis are under scrutiny. The small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) created in the course of state reforms play a decisive role in Cuba's social and economic transformation. They touch on essential aspects of the way of life, individuals’relationship with the Cuban state and the revolution, and also on fundamental questions of alternative social concepts, including climate change, combating hunger, access to education and health systems and gender equality. From a comparative perspective, the sociality of the labour process and the experience of work, including forms of ownership, are of particular importance. What are the possibilities and limits of collective forms of work organisation? What experiences, contradictions and challenges arise in private companies within state socialist economies? And in comparison, in co-operative enterprises in capitalist economies?

Based on these questions, the conference aims at promoting an in-depth understanding of these transformations and their impact on the work and lives of people in Cuba. We hope to develop new perspectives on the emerging social and ecological transformation processes worldwide through exchange and comparative analyses. The focus lays on subjects‘ experiences and processes of social change and how individual agency and state policy and planning relate to each other.

Presentations and discussion take place in English and Spanish with translations. The conference language is English. The event is open to the public, but prior registration is a prerequisite for participation. Please use the online form here on the website. If you have any further questions, please write to Dr. Franz Heilgendorff (franz.heilgendorff@tu-dresden.de) or Prof. Antonia Kupfer (antonia.kupfer@tu-dresden.de)