1,721,185 research outputs found
Corporate Social Responsibility Cuban style
No full textThis chapter draws upon data collected over several research trips to Cuba undertaken between 2013 and 2017 that evidences how the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is understood there. Firstly, some background on Cuba is provided, describing the island nation’s economic journey from the status of a free enterprise oriented US ‘neo-colony’ in the first half of the 20th century, through several decades of strong Soviet inspired state control after the 1959 revolution, before it gradually adopted what has been termed a ‘market socialist’ model after Fidel Castro left the Presidency in 2007. The chapter then presents a snapshot of the fledgling state of CSR in Cuba as understood and practised in newly licensed private small and medium-sized enterprises and state-business partnerships. The kinds of practices that are seen as belonging under the CSR umbrella are compared. The chapter acknowledges the unique political and economic conditions in Cuba and the problems that arise in applying concepts, measures and definitions which have been formulated in the context of Western economies. The chapter therefore provides an insight into how CSR is constructed in a country that has adopted cultural norms of solidarity and collectivist ethics. This is contrasted with the way the concept is understood and operationalized in liberal capitalist countries with paradigmatically ‘neoliberal’ and individualist values, where the norm of self-interest prevails in economic discourse. Finally, we argue that this case study of CSR in a highly regulated economy offers a valuable input to the on-going debate over the merits and demerits of strong state regulation in terms of achieving socially and environmentally responsible business practices
Corporate social responsibility in Cuba
No full textThis chapter draws upon data collected over several research trips to Cuba undertaken between 2013 and 2017 that evidences how the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is understood there. Firstly, some background on Cuba is provided, describing the island nation’s economic journey from the status of a free enterprise oriented US ‘neo-colony’ in the first half of the twentieth century, through several decades of strong Soviet inspired state control after the 1959 revolution, before it gradually adopted what has been termed a ‘market socialist’ model after Fidel Castro left the Presidency in 2007. The chapter then presents a snapshot of the fledgling state of CSR in Cuba as understood and practised in newly licensed private small and medium-sized enterprises and state-business partnerships. The kinds of practices that are seen as belonging under the CSR umbrella are compared. The chapter acknowledges the unique political and economic conditions in Cuba and the problems that arise in applying concepts, measures and definitions which have been formulated in the context of Western economies. The chapter therefore provides an insight into how CSR is constructed in a country that has adopted cultural norms of solidarity and collectivist ethics. This is contrasted with the way the concept is understood and operationalized in liberal capitalist countries with paradigmatically ‘neoliberal’ and individualist values, where the norm of self-interest prevails in economic discourse. Finally, we argue that this case study of CSR in a highly regulated economy offers a valuable input to the on-going debate over the merits and demerits of strong state regulation in terms of achieving socially and environmentally responsible business practices.</p
The leadership style of Fidel Castro: a decolonial perspective
No full textLeadership theory stands accused of being Western-centric. To address this, we investigate Fidel Castro's leadership through 32 semi-structured interviews with Cuban people. Narratives reveal his decolonial leadership as he led the Cuban Revolution, and then Cuba for over 50 years, resisting Western hegemony. Findings problematise the applicability of conceptions of charismatic–transformational leadership (CTL) to non-Western cultures. Benevolent paternalism emerged as a key additional aspect in the Cuban context. Western critiques of CTL as leader-centric and prone to hero-worship were not seen as problematic in the Cuban sample. We explain this with reference to the unifying effects of Castro's decolonial project.</p
Cuban exceptionalism and leader succession: The end of charismatic authority in cuba
No full textThis article investigates the leadership succession in Cuba from Fidel Castro, who was widely perceived as a highly charismatic leader, to his younger brother Raúl Castro and then to the civilian President Miguel Díaz-Canel. This leadership succession provides us with an interesting and unusual case study of a successful transfer of authority from one type of leader to another. We examine the narratives of Cuban people through 32 semi-structured interviews, allowing us to draw insights into the Cuban people s views of their leaders and the leadership succession. We identify themes that may explain how a crisis-free succession was possible, despite Weberian arguments that this was highly unlikely to occur
Towards ecological public health? Cuba’s moral economy of food and agriculture
Full text linkThe concept of moral economy can be applied to all types of economies as they all involve conceptions of the ‘common good’ that determine who gets what, why and how, and who is responsible for this distribution, eg state or private actors. In this paper, we use the concept of moral economy to demonstrate how particular morals and logics shape public health governance in Cuba, comparing these with market liberal contexts. The paper draws from ethnographic and interview data from Cuba to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of Cuban agri-food governance, against the backdrop of market liberal approaches. While Cuban interviewees justified their activities in terms of Cuba’s moral economy of collective need, there were also instances when the socialist moral economy conflicted with individual needs and aspirations. We conclude that, despite its faults, Cuba’s holistic approach to food and agriculture illustrates how ecological approaches to public health might work in practice.</p
Redeveloped docks as artificial lagoons: the development of brackish-water communities and potential for conservation of lagoonal species
No full text1. The use of redeveloped docks for the conservation of lagoonal communities is considered with particular reference to the South Docks in Liverpool.2. Redevelopment of the previously derelict South Docks since 1981 has created a semi-enclosed, brackish body of water by dredging of dock basins that were filled with silt. The development of biological communities on the walls and in the sediments of these docks has been studied.3. A reasonably diverse flora and fauna was established on the walls within approximately six years, but a persistent sediment-dwelling community has not yet developed.4. Over 90 species of macroflora and macrofauna have been recorded from the South Docks to date. Three of these species are considered to be lagoonal specialists.5. Considerations for the management of docks as a resource in the conservation of lagoonal communities are discussed
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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