Rural Cuba in the XX and XXI centuries. Contributions of social sciences from a critical-propositional perspective

Abstract

Introduction. The implementation of reforms in the agricultural sector since 2008 and, above all, during the process of improving the Cuban economic and social project, started in 2011, brought about changes that in little time outdated part of the rural-agrarian knowledge created by social sciences since the late xx century. The purpose of this article is to offer a summary and some insights about the most recent conceptual, methodological, and empirical contributions of social sciences to the multidimensional analysis of the agro-rural processes, emphasizing the institutional network. Methods. Critical review of 30 articles resulting from research and the traditional methodologies of the social sciences were based on more novel methods like collective construction of knowledge, Reflexive Analytical and Participatory Mapping of Sustainability, participatory and multi-criteria techniques, among others. Results and Discussion. The examination carried out corroborates the renovated capacity of social sciences to explain the complex processes that take place in the rural-agrarian context during the process of updating the economic and social model. It also demonstrates the capacity of social sciences to contribute both theoretical and practical proposals, in a more visible way, to the management of development at different levels. It would be desirable that the social rural analyses open up to the theoretical basis built or enriched from a critical and decolonial perspective of knowledge, as well as to dialogue with other proposals coming from the Epistemologies from the South like “ecology of knowledge”.