Cuban community projects and the entangled webs of economies of affect
Cuban community projects and the entangled webs of economies of affect

Summary/Abstract: This article explores the significance of tourism for community projects and its effects on marginalised communities. It considers how developing affective relationships between tourists and community members becomes an essential resource for community development and for carrying out various initiatives. I analyse the strategies employed by the community projects to develop such close relationships and feelings of intimacy between their visitors and community members. Although these activities tend to bring positive effects, the emotions and affects are intertwined with tacit expectations that may remain unfulfilled and lead to disappointment or even conflicts. I also point out that even though leaders of the community projects facilitate the affective relationships between local communities and visiting tourists, they are unable to control these relationships as they develop, since they do it according to their own rules. Moreover, the economies of affect are not limited to tourist–community projects, but are entangled in complex networks in which different social actors are involved, including community members and local authorities. The article is based on twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2018 and 2023 centred around community projects in the marginalised areas of Havana.

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