The metamorphosis of work practices in contemporary Cuba: An ethnographic perspective [Métamorphoses des pratiques professionnelles à Cuba : Une perspective ethnographique]

This article aims to investigate the metamorphosis of the concept and practices of work, which is currently undergoing in Cuba, by taking into account two levels of subjectivity and by suggesting that a third one is needed to be explored. The irst level is represented by how two interlocutors I dialogued with have shaped their cuentapropistas identities by distancing themselves from their previous formal and informal jobs. I argue that informal jobs contributed to a shift in the ideology about work, as well as individual and collective needs. The second level of subjectivity copes with Cuban citizens' efforts to conceive new practices of citizenship, stemming from the analyses of the impact of the cuentapropistas phenomenon on new forms of political and social awareness and participation. Finally, the third level of subjectivity I would like to grasp is my own, by considering how the attempt to be more relexive about my own representation in the ield allowed me to take into account not only my personal vulnerability, in Behar's deinition of the word.