Cooperation Networks and Economic Development: Cubas High-Tech Potential [Hardcover]

For most Western audiences, Cuba is a touristic paradise stuck in time and virtually detached from world technology networks by the US embargo  anything but a hub of industrial innovation and high value-added biotechnology.

However, a closer look reveals more subtle but equally powerful stories that challenge the homogenizing assumptions of conventional economics and open up scope for more sophisticated reflections on Cuban economy and industry. From this kind of enquiry emerges the case of the internationally respected Cuban biotech industry as the most successful case of science and technology policy in the countrys economic history.

The book takes an interdisciplinary approach, exploring issues such as interdependency, purpose and history as natural constituencies of the innovation process. It also examines the dynamic and crucial role played by the state in the formation of innovative business enterprises. This book will be of interest to academic researchers in the fields of innovation and economic development.

For most Western audiences, Cuba is a touristic paradise stuck in time and virtually detached from world technology networks by the US embargo  anything but a hub of industrial innovation and high value-added biotechnology.

Preface amd acknowledgements

1. General introduction and methodological considerations

Part I : Theory and conceptualization

2. Economies as networks
3. The state as networker
4. National systems of innovation: State-based non-firm organizations (NFOs) as integrator

Part II: Contextualisation and analysis of the case

5. Cuban institutions and industrial policy until 1989