Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

A Farewell to Oil: Low-Carbon Ecology and Social Power in Cuban Urban Agriculture

Cederlöf, Gustav LU (2013) HEKM10 20131
Human Ecology
Abstract
For three decades, food supply in Cuban cities was dependent on oil from the Soviet Union. Then the socialist bloc collapsed, oil supply ceased, and an urban agricultural movement brought vegetable production into the cities. – Today, the need for low-carbon energy transitions is increasingly recognised globally. This thesis examines energy transitions based on the Cuban urban agricultural experience: how is space organised socially and ecologically in and around organopónicos to enable production? And what does this imply in relation to the Cuban state’s tendency during the period of Soviet dependency to centralise production and political power? Based on fieldwork in Pinar del Río, the spatial organisation of social institutions and... (More)
For three decades, food supply in Cuban cities was dependent on oil from the Soviet Union. Then the socialist bloc collapsed, oil supply ceased, and an urban agricultural movement brought vegetable production into the cities. – Today, the need for low-carbon energy transitions is increasingly recognised globally. This thesis examines energy transitions based on the Cuban urban agricultural experience: how is space organised socially and ecologically in and around organopónicos to enable production? And what does this imply in relation to the Cuban state’s tendency during the period of Soviet dependency to centralise production and political power? Based on fieldwork in Pinar del Río, the spatial organisation of social institutions and flows of organic materials, seeds, water, pest management methods, and other energy sources that enable and regulate production is examined. It is argued that organopónicos cannot be understood as autonomous agroecological production systems as opposed to industrial production stems in either social or ecological terms, as existing literature posits. Rather, urban agriculture in Cuba is simultaneously agroecological and industrial. The thesis instead conceptualises urban agriculture in Cuba and low-carbon energy transitions through a novel theoretical framework of spatial assemblages. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Cederlöf, Gustav LU
supervisor
organization
course
HEKM10 20131
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Cuba, organopónicos, space, urban agriculture, low-carbon energy transition
language
English
id
3738089
date added to LUP
2013-09-26 10:20:00
date last changed
2013-09-26 10:20:00
@misc{3738089,
  abstract     = {{For three decades, food supply in Cuban cities was dependent on oil from the Soviet Union. Then the socialist bloc collapsed, oil supply ceased, and an urban agricultural movement brought vegetable production into the cities. – Today, the need for low-carbon energy transitions is increasingly recognised globally. This thesis examines energy transitions based on the Cuban urban agricultural experience: how is space organised socially and ecologically in and around organopónicos to enable production? And what does this imply in relation to the Cuban state’s tendency during the period of Soviet dependency to centralise production and political power? Based on fieldwork in Pinar del Río, the spatial organisation of social institutions and flows of organic materials, seeds, water, pest management methods, and other energy sources that enable and regulate production is examined. It is argued that organopónicos cannot be understood as autonomous agroecological production systems as opposed to industrial production stems in either social or ecological terms, as existing literature posits. Rather, urban agriculture in Cuba is simultaneously agroecological and industrial. The thesis instead conceptualises urban agriculture in Cuba and low-carbon energy transitions through a novel theoretical framework of spatial assemblages.}},
  author       = {{Cederlöf, Gustav}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{A Farewell to Oil: Low-Carbon Ecology and Social Power in Cuban Urban Agriculture}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}