Swap It on WhatsApp: The Moral Economy of Informal Online Exchange Networks in Contemporary Cuba

Abstract

The inhabitants of Cuba's capital, Havana, are using semipublic group chats on messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram to access food, hygiene products, medication, and other basic necessities during times of scarcity. This has been especially prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such chat groups created digital spaces in which locals swap scarce goods and share vital information about the availability of products in the government-run shops, creative entrepreneurs offer online delivery services, and black-market vendors sell commodities that are in short supply. We examine the conflicting value systems that shape the interactions on these messaging apps, where solidarity and sharing as well as market-mediated exchanges come to coexist and must be negotiated on an everyday basis. The article is accompanied by a series of "screen walks"-that is, short mobile phone videos, in which research participants explain the dynamics of the groups they participate in. [barter, Cuba, informal economy, moral economies, social media] R e s u m e n Los habitantes de La Habana, la capital de Cuba, utilizan chats grupales semipúblicos en aplicaciones de mensajería como WhatsApp y Telegram para acceder a alimentos, productos de higiene, medicamentos y otros productos de primera necesidad en épocas de escasez y, en particular, durante la pandemia de COVID-19. Estos grupos de chat

Under pressure: Catching the pulse of a Cuban crisis

“…These regions of compressions/refractions in the air correspond to high and low air pressure, respectively. The compression and refraction phenomenon echoes the idea of cycles reported by scholars like Kapcia (2008) and Mesa-Lago and P erez-L opez (2013) when they refer to a typology of "idealist" and "pragmatist" cycles. 27 These regions of low and high pressures travel in a longitudinal oscillating fashion most commonly referred to as waves, when perceived by the eardrums, the information is transmitted to the brain, and sounds become perceptible to the human ear.…”

“…Aguantar, to endure pressure, has its limits. Cubans have lived under pressure almost permanently, or as Kapcia (2008) would argue, in a "permanent cycle of crises." They have learned to struggle (luchar), to resolve (resolver), and to invent (inventar) ways to cope with the shortage of products and information, among other things.…”

“…While reflecting on my fieldwork conducted during the Summer 2022, added to more recent observation based on my last field trip at the beginning of 2023, I propose to catch the pulse of the moment, in shifting the crisis-based discourse to one based on pressure. In his history of Cuba since the 1950s, Antoni Kapcia focuses on cycles of crises instead of chronological phases to "see the apparently contradictory pressures and patterns of the Revolution" (2008: 26; my emphasis) and to highlight a recurrent pattern in the history of the Cuban Revolution based on "a repetitive process of crisis, debate, decision and certainty, until the next crisis" (Kapcia, 2008). In focusing on cycles, Kapcia (2008) argues, it is possible to perceive the dynamics of changes and survivals which tend to repeat themselves throughout history.…”

“…In his history of Cuba since the 1950s, Antoni Kapcia focuses on cycles of crises instead of chronological phases to "see the apparently contradictory pressures and patterns of the Revolution" (2008: 26; my emphasis) and to highlight a recurrent pattern in the history of the Cuban Revolution based on "a repetitive process of crisis, debate, decision and certainty, until the next crisis" (Kapcia, 2008). In focusing on cycles, Kapcia (2008) argues, it is possible to perceive the dynamics of changes and survivals which tend to repeat themselves throughout history. Rather than considering how the current crisis would fit this model, I explore the ways in which pressure bends bodies, things, and ecosystems and how those same constituents respond to such forces in a compression-refraction oscillatory fashion.…”

“… 13 Cubans also use WhatsApp to access various consumptions goods as well as medication (see Köhn and Siré, 2022). …”