The Changing Dynamic of Cuban Civil Society.  (2008)  Alexander I. Gray and Antoni Kapcia (eds). Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 2008. Includes bibliography, index; 2 figures, 14 tables, 202 pp.

Kendra Coulter*

As a recent addition to John Kirk’s ambitious series, Contemporary Cuba, the edited collection, The Changing Dynamic of Cuban Civil Society, offers a comprehensive and much-needed exploration of Cuban civil society, providing both specificity and breadth. As a whole, this collection focuses on the range of organizations and actors that constitute civil society, and unpacks their work as well as their relationships with different levels of government and mass organizations. Rather than assuming that non-governmental organizations and movements simply represent a deviation from governmental and revolutionary aims and projects, the contributors  present a constructive and grounded consideration of the ways in which Cuban civil society reinforces, supports, supplements and challenges national and local public policy and culture.  

Kapcia sets the stage for the collection by providing a thorough history of Cuban politics, particularly the production, dissemination and contestation of the Revolution’s political culture.  He presents two frames for understanding Cuban politics and society which serve as an effective foundation for the book.  First, he argues that mechanisms imposed by the government are often taken up and modified “from below.” Second, he notes that initiatives perceived as new may actually be a revival of historical forms of participation that accompany or broaden contemporary governmental formations.

Michelle Marìn-Dogan provides a rich discussion of debates about civil society that occurred within Cuba, particularly in the 1990s, and shows how these debates have shaped the contemporary terrain materially and ideologically. Her chapter provides interesting insights into the diversity of socialisms within Cuba, and the ways that Cuban intellectuals engage with each other and with social theorists like Antonio Gramsci.
           
Valuable chapters on the private sector (Francisco Domínguez), religion (Christine Ayorinde), local engagement (Miren Uriarte), and non-governmental organizations (Alexander I. Gray) give readers ample empirical data and sober analyses of the trajectory and complexity of each area, and demonstrate how initiatives in civil society interact with government projects.  Nino Pagliccia’s chapter on solidarity organizations within and for Cuba particularly stands out.  He cogently outlines the weaknesses of charity and the importance of solidarity efforts, offering insights on ideology and practice relevant to understanding contemporary political work in Cuba and beyond.
           
This collection is thorough and well-organized. The analysis is thoughtful, and the contributors lend a valuable set of voices to the scholarly literature on civil society, state formations, government projects, revolutionary politics, and public policy and culture in Cuba and Latin America. The book reaffirms that neither the Revolution nor Cuban civil society are monolithic or static, but rather are created, negotiated, and lived by real people. The collection and individual chapters laudably contextualize the issues historically and within contemporary national and global politics, and successfully move between levels of analysis, particularly through the incorporation of data collected from various sources including interviews, budgets, policy documents, legislation, and media coverage, among others. Short methodological sections in each chapter would have been beneficial to help elucidate for the reader how each case was approached.

The chapters vary somewhat in denseness, but over-all, while the collection is thorough, it is also readable, thus making it a valuable text for use in senior undergraduate or graduate courses on Cuba or Latin America. All told, this is a useful and timely contribution to Latin American studies that challenges the myths about and makes sense of Cuban civil society.

* Dr. Kendra Coulter teaches in the Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology and also in Labour Studies at the University of Windsor, Her latest publication is “Deep Neoliberal Integration: The Production of Third Way Politics.” Studies in Political Economy  2009.