After more than fifty years, the Cuban socialist regime continues to survive against steep odds. The transition that Cuba has had to face since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 has led to the implementation of a number of policies that have drastically altered the social, cultural, political and economic landscape of the country. My research focuses on the fundamental contradiction that exists between Cuba's socialist political system and the market capitalism of the tourism industry in Havana, Cuba. I am especially interested in how the State attempts to resolve this contradiction. Drawing on qualitative research, I argue that the Cuban state creates visual and discursive narratives through which it manages these contradictions. I show how imaginaries created through tourist maps and through restoration policies in Old Havana consist of highly malleable symbolic landscapes that the Cuban state utilizes in order to maintain the status quo in the face of an uncertain future. / Après plus de cinquante ans d'existence, le régime socialiste Cubain continue de survivre malgré d'innombrables obstacles. Cuba a dû faire face à plusieurs changements depuis la chute de l'URSS en 1989, et ceci a contribué à l'inauguration de plusieurs politiques qui ont grandement changé l'espace politique, social et économique du pays. Ma recherche porte sur la contradiction fondamentale qui existe à Cuba entre le système politique socialiste et le système économique qui est aujourd'hui axé sur des principes capitalistes. Me basant sur des techniques de recherche qualitatives, je démontre que l'état Cubain gère ces contradictions en créant des espaces discursifs et visuels. Ces espaces, notamment présents à travers des cartes touristiques et des politiques de restauration de la vielle Havane, sont des espaces symboliques hautement flexibles utilisés par l'état Cubain dans un effort de maintenir le statut quo face à un futur incertain.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.95050 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Kaiser, Natalie |
| Contributors | Benjamin Forest (Supervisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Geography) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | Electronically-submitted theses. |
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