Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Garden

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Urban Gardens of Havana

  • 158 Accesses

Abstract

The small-scale urban gardens in central Havana are more than merely the physical spaces. They maintain complex networks that represent political orientations. In this chapter we trace the networks of small-scale gardens through Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and show how the network is a Garden in itself. Acts, intentions, actions, thoughts and performances all constitute the Garden and generate subjectivities. Through our network-thinking, we distinguish ‘the Garden’ from ‘the garden as a confined space’. The Garden emerges from the network of all small gardens across Cuba. Moreover, it transcends the material and discusses ideological performativity. The network-thinking reveals how sustainable practices can evoke intimate experiences between humans and non-humans within the realm of everyday life and the blurred boundaries of nature and culture.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Partly due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the import of food products, oil and pesticides dropped spectacularly, resulting in the country’s biggest economic crisis (Espina et al. 2011). Cubans call this period, which started in 1989, the ‘Special Period in Times of Peace’ (El Período Especial en Tiempos de Paz). This term emerged because, for the population, the economic situation was warlike yet without an actual war.

  2. 2.

    Ornamental (decorative) and medicinal plants. In Cuba, medicinal plants are, for example, chamomile, marigold, ginger, aloe vera, passionflower, orange leaves and oregano.

References

  • Altieri, M. A., Companioni, N., Cañizares, K., Murphy, C., Rosset, P., Bourque, M., Nicholls, C. I., & Miguel, A. (1999). The greening of the ‘barrios’: Urban agriculture for food security in Cuba. Agriculture and Human Values, 16, 131–140. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007545304561.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bachelard, G. (1994). The poetics of space. Boston: Beacon Press. First published in French in 1958.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhatti, M., Church, A., Claremont, A., & Stenner, P. (2009). ‘I love being in the garden’: Enchanting encounters in everyday life. Social & Cultural Geography, 10(1), 61–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649360802553202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Botelho, M. I., Cardoso, I. M., & Otsuki, K. (2015). ‘I made a pact with God, with nature, and with myself’: Exploring deep agroecology. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 40(2), 116–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/21683565.2015.1115798.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, C., & Piccone, T. (2017). Sustainable development: The path to economic growth in Cuba. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/research/sustainable-development-the-path-to-economic-growth-in-cuba/, 28 June.

  • Espina, M., Rodríguez, J. L., Triana, J., & Hernández, R. (2011). El período especial veinte años después. Temas, 65, 59–75.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, C., Dickinson, K. J., Porter, S., & Heezik, Y. V. (2012). ‘My garden is an expression of me’: Exploring householders’ relationships with their gardens. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 32(2), 135–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2012.01.005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Game, A., & Metcalfe, A. (2011). ‘My corner of the world’: Bachelard and Bondi Beach. Emotion, Space and Society, 4(1), 42–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2010.10.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gold, M. (2011). Urban gardens: Private property or the ultimate socialist experience? In C. Riobó (Ed.), Cuban intersections of literary and urban spaces (pp. 25–48). Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gold, M. (2014). Peasant, patriot, environmentalist: Sustainable development discourse in Havana. Bulletin of Latin American Research, 33(4), 405–418. https://doi.org/10.1111/blar.12175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harman, G. (2009). Prince of networks: Bruno Latour and metaphysics. Melbourne: Re.Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hitchings, R. (2003). People, plants and performance: On actor network theory and the material pleasures of the private garden. Social & Cultural Geography, 4(1), 99–114. https://doi.org/10.1080/1464936032000049333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mol, A. (2010). Actor-network theory: Sensitive terms and enduring tensions. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie. Sonderheft, 50, 253–269.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mol, A., Moser, I., Piras, E. M., Turrini, M., Pols, J., & Zanutto, A. (2011). Care in practice. On normativity, concepts, and boundaries. Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies, 2(1), 73–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Novo, M., & Murphy, C. (2000). Urban agriculture in the city of Havana: A popular response to a crisis. In N. Bakker, M. Dubbeling, S. Günde, U. Sabel-Koshella, & H. de Zeeuw (Eds.), Growing cities, growing food. Urban agriculture on the policy agenda (pp. 329–346). Feldafing: Zentralstelle für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (ZEL).

    Google Scholar 

  • Power, E. R. (2005). Human–nature relations in suburban gardens. Australian Geographer, 36(1), 39–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049180500050847.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Premat, A. (2010). Moving between the plan and the ground: Shifting perspectives on urban agriculture in Havana, Cuba. In Agropolis: The social, political, and environmental dimensions of urban agriculture (pp. 171–204). London: Earthscan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saramifar, Y. (2018). Tales of pleasures of violence and combat resilience among Iraqi Shi’i combatants fighting ISIS. Ethnography, 146613811878163. https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138118781639.

  • Stedman, R. C. (2003). Is it really just a social construction? The contribution of the physical environment to sense of place. Society & Natural Resources, 16(8), 671–685. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920309189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tuan, Y. (2014). Space and place: The perspective of experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warwick, D. (1964). A house is not a home [CD]. Burt Bacharach, Hal David.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Ola Plonska & Younes Saramifar

Authors
  1. Ola Plonska
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Younes Saramifar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Plonska, O., Saramifar, Y. (2019). The Garden. In: The Urban Gardens of Havana. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12657-5_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12657-5_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-12656-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-12657-5

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation