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Thesis Chapters by Diego A Nieto
Thesis, 2021
Full thesis available at: https://hdl.handle.net/1807/106457 This thesis explores the (dis)encou... more Full thesis available at: https://hdl.handle.net/1807/106457
This thesis explores the (dis)encounters between youths' lived experiences and understandings of conflict and violence and the curricular intentions and practices in their schools. Participating youth attend two schools in marginalized urban areas of Colombia that are differently affected by violence and the armed conflict. One school is located in a municipality directly affected by armed conflict violence. The other is in a traditional neighborhood in a large city, affected by insecurity and urban criminality but located away from the direct effects of the armed conflict. Soon after the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian state and the largest guerrilla organization, I conducted several months of participant observations, focus groups with youth from grades 8 to 10, interviews with teachers, and follow-up visits in each field site.
Books by Diego A Nieto
Este libro presenta enfoques de género e interculturales para trabajar la educación para la paz, ... more Este libro presenta enfoques de género e interculturales para trabajar la educación para la paz, ofreciendo herramientas pedagógicas y actividades para personas interesadas en trabajar con jóvenes en sus comunidades en construcción de paz. Se basa en el trabajo con movimientos y organizaciones sociales de la región del Pacífico de Colombia, y hace especial énfasis en las preocupaciones y experiencias de estas comunidades con el conflicto y la violencia.
A casi tres décadas de la inserción estatal del multiculturalismo en Colombia, los estudios de ca... more A casi tres décadas de la inserción estatal del multiculturalismo en Colombia, los estudios de caso y reflexiones que presentamos en este libro buscan dar una mirada al multiculturalismo a partir de sus efectos políticos y prácticos en contextos específicos del suroccidente del país. Las investigaciones realizadas en el marco de este libro, ponen su mirada sobre situaciones de conflictividad y espacios de encuentros entre poblaciones indígenas, afrodescendientes, y campesinas de la región, con el objetivo de entender los alcances y consecuencias que las políticas de reconocimiento e inclusión multicultural. En particular, los trabajos reunidos en este volumen comparten una preocupación por estudiar las formas de regulación implementadas desde las políticas multiculturales, buscando mostrar las maneras en que éstas configuran dispositivos para gobernar poblaciones, producir subjetividades y organizar el territorio. A su vez, se exploran las dinámicas complejas de desigualdad, las expresiones materiales y simbólicas de poder, las formas de resistencia y creatividad presentes en y entre éstas poblaciones, que buscan navegar las contradicciones y posibilidades de los regímenes de reconocimiento étnico y cultural en Colombia.
Papers by Diego A Nieto
Centro de Estudios Interculturales. (2013). Análisis de la posesión territorial y situaciones de ... more Centro de Estudios Interculturales. (2013). Análisis de la posesión territorial y situaciones de tensión interétnica e intercultural en el departamento del Cauca. Recuperado de https://www.javerianacali.edu.co/sites/ujc/files/node/field-documents/ field_document_file/analisis_posesion_territorial_-_tensiones_interetnicas_e_ interculturales_en_el_cauca_1.pdf Chaves, M. (2005).
Co-herencia, 2016
El presente texto realiza una reconstrucción de las influyentes contribuciones del politólogo Gui... more El presente texto realiza una reconstrucción de las influyentes contribuciones del politólogo Guillermo O’Donnell a los estudios sobre los procesos de democratización. Para ello, discute sus principales elaboraciones analíticas y conceptuales situándolas en el contexto político e histórico en el que se desarrollaron, así como frente a otros adelantos teóricos y discusiones ideológicas que les han seguido. En particular, esta revisión se concentra, primero, en el período de las transiciones a la democracia en América Latina, mostrando cómo los constructos teóricos desarrollados por O’Donnell estaban vinculados a las visiones políticas y los compromisos normativos más amplios de su parte. Tales compromisos se ven reflejados, posteriormente, en los intereses investigativos y apuestas conceptuales del autor durante el período post-transicional, específicamente en sus preocupaciones frente a la democracia delegativa y la accountability horizontal, elementos que ocupan la segunda parte de...
Colombia Internacional, 2012
The paper argues that policies for controlling transnational crime are a crucial dimension for un... more The paper argues that policies for controlling transnational crime are a crucial dimension for understanding neoliberal hegemony in global governance. It takes on the relation established by Foucault between biopolitics and neoliberalism, in order to reconstruct the discursive formation framing law enforcement and security strategies beyond the spatiality of the nation-state. The paper then turns to outlining the practical expressions of this discourse in the governance techniques deployed to control transnational crime. Overall, this study aims to show how neoliberal criticism of state power is not coupled with a reduction in governance but, on the contrary, implies many regulations and strategies for controlling the population.
The article aims to understand how the dominant conceptualization of transnational crime legitima... more The article aims to understand how the dominant conceptualization of transnational crime legitimates non-traditional forms of warfare at the global level while itself constituting the idea of global civil society. It is argued that since this discourse defines transnational crime as a threat to global society, it makes politically viable the deployment of policing and military interventions in defence of the world population. In order to expose this, this article reconstructs the trajectories of the discourse on organized criminality. The article first analyses the emergence of the discourse in the United States during the 1950s, afterwards analysing it as an issue of transnational scope during the last two decades. Thus the aim here is to underline the importance that a phenomenon such as crime has had on the governance at a global level.
Revista Española de Educación Comparada, 2016
Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education , 2017
Understanding multilateral institutions’ role in the construction of desirable goals for educatio... more Understanding multilateral institutions’ role in the construction of desirable goals for educational reform is a key element to grasp the weight globalisation has on local practices of education. Comparative studies of civics and moral education point to the idea of ‘citizenship’ as a site revealing not only the political economy but also the cultural politics involved in the globalisation of education. Through political discourse analysis, this paper analyses key multilateral agencies’ discourses on citizenship education for Latin America. It traces the concerns, diagnoses, definitions and proposals of what citizenship education is (or should be) in agenda-setting documents and policy reports promoted by these organisations. Drawing on Latin American decolonial theories, it challenges concerns with civic disengagement and convivencia underpinning multilateral citizenship education discourses. As a counterpoint, it presents research from scholars highlighting alternative – often overlooked – participatory and decolonial pedagogical experiences present in Latin America that open new standpoints for citizenship education comparative research in the region.
Curriculum Inquiry, 2017
Full article: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/Wx2jVSaBvg73nMVbPppI/full This paper discusse... more Full article: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/Wx2jVSaBvg73nMVbPppI/full
This paper discusses findings from focus groups with youth located in underprivileged surroundings in one large multicultural city in Canada and in a moderately large city in Mexico, examining their understandings and lived experiences of migration-related conflicts. Canadian participants framed these conflicts as a problem of racist attitudes towards immigrants in an otherwise welcoming city. Mexican youth understood emigration as a questionable individual dream to overcome precarious economic conditions, bringing about violence to those travelling and family fractures for those who stay. We identify tensions between these dominant narratives about mobility and conflict – usually also present in intended curriculum – and students' first-hand, every day experiences with migration in each setting. We point out to youths' contrasting imaginaries of citizenship – sense of agency and identity positions – with regards to migration in each setting, showing the limited opportunities they have to make sense of their lived (globalized) conflicts beyond their own localized cultural explanations. We argue that connecting the recognition of cultural differences in the world with the power imbalances, unequal positions, and historically structured global inequities revealed by issues such as migration, must become a crucial effort in citizenship education on global issues.
(Educación ciudadana y convivencia en contextos de violencia: desafíos transnacionales a la const... more (Educación ciudadana y convivencia en contextos de
violencia: desafíos transnacionales a la construcción de
paz en escuelas de México)
The paper argues that policies for controlling transnational crime are a crucial dimension for un... more The paper argues that policies for controlling transnational crime are a crucial dimension for understanding neoliberal hegemony in global governance. It takes on the relation established by Foucault between biopolitics and neoliberalism, in order to reconstruct the discursive formation framing law enforcement and security strategies beyond the spatiality of the nation-state. The paper then turns to outlining the practical expressions of this discourse in the governance techniques deployed to control transnational crime. Overall, this study aims to show how neoliberal criticism of state power is not coupled with a reduction in governance but, on the contrary, implies many regulations and strategies for controlling the population.
Introducción: de la transición al vaciamiento y desencanto con la democracia Tras la caída del so... more Introducción: de la transición al vaciamiento y desencanto con la democracia Tras la caída del socialismo soviético se habló mucho del supuesto fin de la historia y las ideologías. El argumento aludido sostiene que la democracia liberal y su correlato en el capitalismo de libre mercado son la única posibilidad de gobierno legítimo y eficiente en sociedades complejas e interdependientes. Los valores democráticos parecen haberse fusionado con los principios centrales del liberalismo -político y económico-, hasta el punto que se hace cada vez más difícil diferenciar qué ha tomado cada una de estas "tradiciones" de la otra. 2 En este contexto ideológico, la globalización aparece como una fuerza neutral, que para el caso de los gobiernos latinoamericanos en vías de la denominada "consolidación democrática", requirió de programas de ajuste económico estructural y de reformas políticas que tenían precisamente como sustento la idea de su
Colombia Internacional, 2012
The paper argues that policies for controlling transnational crime are a crucial dimension for un... more The paper argues that policies for controlling transnational crime are a crucial dimension for understanding neoliberal hegemony in global governance. It takes on the relation established by Foucault between biopolitics and neoliberalism, in order to reconstruct the discursive formation framing law enforcement and security strategies beyond the spatiality of the nation-state. The paper then turns to outlining the practical expressions of this discourse in the governance techniques deployed to control transnational crime. Overall, this study aims to show how neoliberal criticism of state power is not coupled with a reduction in governance but, on the contrary, implies many regulations and strategies for controlling the population.
The article aims to understand how the dominant conceptualization of transnational crime legitima... more The article aims to understand how the dominant conceptualization of transnational crime legitimates non-traditional forms of warfare at the global level while itself constituting the idea of global civil society. It is argued that since this discourse defines transnational crime as a threat to global society, it makes politically viable the deployment of policing and military interventions in defence of the world population. In order to expose this, this article reconstructs the trajectories of the discourse on organized criminality. The article first analyses the emergence of the discourse in the United States during the 1950s, afterwards analysing it as an issue of transnational scope during the last two decades. Thus the aim here is to underline the importance that a phenomenon such as crime has had on the governance at a global level.
El presente artículo se ocupa de recrear el gobierno de Carlos Lleras Restrepo, como el momento d... more El presente artículo se ocupa de recrear el gobierno de Carlos Lleras Restrepo, como el momento de emergencia de una élite intelectual tecnocrática que empieza a copar mayor numero de espacios sociales gracias a las características particulares y estructurales especificas del período. Frente al contexto de crisis política -agotamiento de la legitimidad del régimen frentenacionalista-, de crisis económica -problema fiscal y de las salidas a la devaluación que se veían atravesadas por la presión de la banca multilateral y un contexto mundial en proceso de apertura económica-, y de crisis social -aumento de la violencia rural y la migración urbana-, el gobierno Lleras emerge como proyecto de modernización en tres frentes: la Reforma Constitucional -reorganización del aparato estatal-, el inicio de la transformación del modelo de desarrollo -formulación de una política macroeconómica relativamente heterodoxa-, y el relanzamiento de la Reforma Agraria -intento de reestructuración de las relaciones rurales-, que se constituyen en la semilla de cambio hacia un modelo distinto de mercado, Estado, y en el fondo, de reproducción social. Ese proyecto define el ingreso de la élite intelectual y la racionalidad tecnocrática al aparato estatal, erigiéndose como nuevo dispositivo de dominación elitista de la sociedad que relegitima la práctica gubernamental desde un discurso de pretendido saber objetivo. Constituye el mecanismo desarrollado para resolver la contradicción entre la intervención ampliada en la sociedad y el paso a un liberalismo de mercado, sin embargo, las circunstancias contradictorias en la cuales se da su emergencia definen su configuración particular y posterior desarrollo como agente de poder. Así, el fracaso del proyecto "modernizante" Llerista -que significa el inicio de la crisis del régimen político del Frente Nacional-, es la expresión de la ausencia todavía de un proyecto propio coherente y continuo que posteriormente agenciará este emergente cuerpo tecnocrático.
Book Reviews by Diego A Nieto
Citizenship Teaching & Learning Volume 12 Number 2
Conference Presentations by Diego A Nieto
Reviewing the existing research on Colombia's participatory democracy over the last fifteen years... more Reviewing the existing research on Colombia's participatory democracy over the last fifteen years, this paper traces the trajectories shaping the political uses of participatory democracy in the country's local governance. It does so following a twofold strategy: on the one hand, it links these trajectories to wider transformations around participatory democracy related to discourses on Good Governance, the multiplication of non-electoral forms of participation by the citizenry, and to recent debates on the politics of participatory democracy in Latin-America. On the other hand, it outlines the specificities of the Colombian case by considering three particular features of its context: the materialization of the discourse on Participatory Good Governance, the bearings that the armed conflict has had in local governance, and the tensions arising from the emergence of the 'participatory strategy' of Consejos Comunales during president Uribe's tenure (2002-2010). Finally, the paper considers the effects of these features on civil society's engagement with participatory spaces, highlighting, nonetheless, encouraging progresses that seem to bridge the gap between these distorted developments and the normative promises brought about by participatory democracy a couple of decades ago.
Thesis, 2021
Full thesis available at: https://hdl.handle.net/1807/106457 This thesis explores the (dis)encou... more Full thesis available at: https://hdl.handle.net/1807/106457
This thesis explores the (dis)encounters between youths' lived experiences and understandings of conflict and violence and the curricular intentions and practices in their schools. Participating youth attend two schools in marginalized urban areas of Colombia that are differently affected by violence and the armed conflict. One school is located in a municipality directly affected by armed conflict violence. The other is in a traditional neighborhood in a large city, affected by insecurity and urban criminality but located away from the direct effects of the armed conflict. Soon after the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian state and the largest guerrilla organization, I conducted several months of participant observations, focus groups with youth from grades 8 to 10, interviews with teachers, and follow-up visits in each field site.
Este libro presenta enfoques de género e interculturales para trabajar la educación para la paz, ... more Este libro presenta enfoques de género e interculturales para trabajar la educación para la paz, ofreciendo herramientas pedagógicas y actividades para personas interesadas en trabajar con jóvenes en sus comunidades en construcción de paz. Se basa en el trabajo con movimientos y organizaciones sociales de la región del Pacífico de Colombia, y hace especial énfasis en las preocupaciones y experiencias de estas comunidades con el conflicto y la violencia.
A casi tres décadas de la inserción estatal del multiculturalismo en Colombia, los estudios de ca... more A casi tres décadas de la inserción estatal del multiculturalismo en Colombia, los estudios de caso y reflexiones que presentamos en este libro buscan dar una mirada al multiculturalismo a partir de sus efectos políticos y prácticos en contextos específicos del suroccidente del país. Las investigaciones realizadas en el marco de este libro, ponen su mirada sobre situaciones de conflictividad y espacios de encuentros entre poblaciones indígenas, afrodescendientes, y campesinas de la región, con el objetivo de entender los alcances y consecuencias que las políticas de reconocimiento e inclusión multicultural. En particular, los trabajos reunidos en este volumen comparten una preocupación por estudiar las formas de regulación implementadas desde las políticas multiculturales, buscando mostrar las maneras en que éstas configuran dispositivos para gobernar poblaciones, producir subjetividades y organizar el territorio. A su vez, se exploran las dinámicas complejas de desigualdad, las expresiones materiales y simbólicas de poder, las formas de resistencia y creatividad presentes en y entre éstas poblaciones, que buscan navegar las contradicciones y posibilidades de los regímenes de reconocimiento étnico y cultural en Colombia.
Centro de Estudios Interculturales. (2013). Análisis de la posesión territorial y situaciones de ... more Centro de Estudios Interculturales. (2013). Análisis de la posesión territorial y situaciones de tensión interétnica e intercultural en el departamento del Cauca. Recuperado de https://www.javerianacali.edu.co/sites/ujc/files/node/field-documents/ field_document_file/analisis_posesion_territorial_-_tensiones_interetnicas_e_ interculturales_en_el_cauca_1.pdf Chaves, M. (2005).
Co-herencia, 2016
El presente texto realiza una reconstrucción de las influyentes contribuciones del politólogo Gui... more El presente texto realiza una reconstrucción de las influyentes contribuciones del politólogo Guillermo O’Donnell a los estudios sobre los procesos de democratización. Para ello, discute sus principales elaboraciones analíticas y conceptuales situándolas en el contexto político e histórico en el que se desarrollaron, así como frente a otros adelantos teóricos y discusiones ideológicas que les han seguido. En particular, esta revisión se concentra, primero, en el período de las transiciones a la democracia en América Latina, mostrando cómo los constructos teóricos desarrollados por O’Donnell estaban vinculados a las visiones políticas y los compromisos normativos más amplios de su parte. Tales compromisos se ven reflejados, posteriormente, en los intereses investigativos y apuestas conceptuales del autor durante el período post-transicional, específicamente en sus preocupaciones frente a la democracia delegativa y la accountability horizontal, elementos que ocupan la segunda parte de...
Colombia Internacional, 2012
The paper argues that policies for controlling transnational crime are a crucial dimension for un... more The paper argues that policies for controlling transnational crime are a crucial dimension for understanding neoliberal hegemony in global governance. It takes on the relation established by Foucault between biopolitics and neoliberalism, in order to reconstruct the discursive formation framing law enforcement and security strategies beyond the spatiality of the nation-state. The paper then turns to outlining the practical expressions of this discourse in the governance techniques deployed to control transnational crime. Overall, this study aims to show how neoliberal criticism of state power is not coupled with a reduction in governance but, on the contrary, implies many regulations and strategies for controlling the population.
The article aims to understand how the dominant conceptualization of transnational crime legitima... more The article aims to understand how the dominant conceptualization of transnational crime legitimates non-traditional forms of warfare at the global level while itself constituting the idea of global civil society. It is argued that since this discourse defines transnational crime as a threat to global society, it makes politically viable the deployment of policing and military interventions in defence of the world population. In order to expose this, this article reconstructs the trajectories of the discourse on organized criminality. The article first analyses the emergence of the discourse in the United States during the 1950s, afterwards analysing it as an issue of transnational scope during the last two decades. Thus the aim here is to underline the importance that a phenomenon such as crime has had on the governance at a global level.
Revista Española de Educación Comparada, 2016
Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education , 2017
Understanding multilateral institutions’ role in the construction of desirable goals for educatio... more Understanding multilateral institutions’ role in the construction of desirable goals for educational reform is a key element to grasp the weight globalisation has on local practices of education. Comparative studies of civics and moral education point to the idea of ‘citizenship’ as a site revealing not only the political economy but also the cultural politics involved in the globalisation of education. Through political discourse analysis, this paper analyses key multilateral agencies’ discourses on citizenship education for Latin America. It traces the concerns, diagnoses, definitions and proposals of what citizenship education is (or should be) in agenda-setting documents and policy reports promoted by these organisations. Drawing on Latin American decolonial theories, it challenges concerns with civic disengagement and convivencia underpinning multilateral citizenship education discourses. As a counterpoint, it presents research from scholars highlighting alternative – often overlooked – participatory and decolonial pedagogical experiences present in Latin America that open new standpoints for citizenship education comparative research in the region.
Curriculum Inquiry, 2017
Full article: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/Wx2jVSaBvg73nMVbPppI/full This paper discusse... more Full article: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/Wx2jVSaBvg73nMVbPppI/full
This paper discusses findings from focus groups with youth located in underprivileged surroundings in one large multicultural city in Canada and in a moderately large city in Mexico, examining their understandings and lived experiences of migration-related conflicts. Canadian participants framed these conflicts as a problem of racist attitudes towards immigrants in an otherwise welcoming city. Mexican youth understood emigration as a questionable individual dream to overcome precarious economic conditions, bringing about violence to those travelling and family fractures for those who stay. We identify tensions between these dominant narratives about mobility and conflict – usually also present in intended curriculum – and students' first-hand, every day experiences with migration in each setting. We point out to youths' contrasting imaginaries of citizenship – sense of agency and identity positions – with regards to migration in each setting, showing the limited opportunities they have to make sense of their lived (globalized) conflicts beyond their own localized cultural explanations. We argue that connecting the recognition of cultural differences in the world with the power imbalances, unequal positions, and historically structured global inequities revealed by issues such as migration, must become a crucial effort in citizenship education on global issues.
(Educación ciudadana y convivencia en contextos de violencia: desafíos transnacionales a la const... more (Educación ciudadana y convivencia en contextos de
violencia: desafíos transnacionales a la construcción de
paz en escuelas de México)
The paper argues that policies for controlling transnational crime are a crucial dimension for un... more The paper argues that policies for controlling transnational crime are a crucial dimension for understanding neoliberal hegemony in global governance. It takes on the relation established by Foucault between biopolitics and neoliberalism, in order to reconstruct the discursive formation framing law enforcement and security strategies beyond the spatiality of the nation-state. The paper then turns to outlining the practical expressions of this discourse in the governance techniques deployed to control transnational crime. Overall, this study aims to show how neoliberal criticism of state power is not coupled with a reduction in governance but, on the contrary, implies many regulations and strategies for controlling the population.
Introducción: de la transición al vaciamiento y desencanto con la democracia Tras la caída del so... more Introducción: de la transición al vaciamiento y desencanto con la democracia Tras la caída del socialismo soviético se habló mucho del supuesto fin de la historia y las ideologías. El argumento aludido sostiene que la democracia liberal y su correlato en el capitalismo de libre mercado son la única posibilidad de gobierno legítimo y eficiente en sociedades complejas e interdependientes. Los valores democráticos parecen haberse fusionado con los principios centrales del liberalismo -político y económico-, hasta el punto que se hace cada vez más difícil diferenciar qué ha tomado cada una de estas "tradiciones" de la otra. 2 En este contexto ideológico, la globalización aparece como una fuerza neutral, que para el caso de los gobiernos latinoamericanos en vías de la denominada "consolidación democrática", requirió de programas de ajuste económico estructural y de reformas políticas que tenían precisamente como sustento la idea de su
Colombia Internacional, 2012
The paper argues that policies for controlling transnational crime are a crucial dimension for un... more The paper argues that policies for controlling transnational crime are a crucial dimension for understanding neoliberal hegemony in global governance. It takes on the relation established by Foucault between biopolitics and neoliberalism, in order to reconstruct the discursive formation framing law enforcement and security strategies beyond the spatiality of the nation-state. The paper then turns to outlining the practical expressions of this discourse in the governance techniques deployed to control transnational crime. Overall, this study aims to show how neoliberal criticism of state power is not coupled with a reduction in governance but, on the contrary, implies many regulations and strategies for controlling the population.
The article aims to understand how the dominant conceptualization of transnational crime legitima... more The article aims to understand how the dominant conceptualization of transnational crime legitimates non-traditional forms of warfare at the global level while itself constituting the idea of global civil society. It is argued that since this discourse defines transnational crime as a threat to global society, it makes politically viable the deployment of policing and military interventions in defence of the world population. In order to expose this, this article reconstructs the trajectories of the discourse on organized criminality. The article first analyses the emergence of the discourse in the United States during the 1950s, afterwards analysing it as an issue of transnational scope during the last two decades. Thus the aim here is to underline the importance that a phenomenon such as crime has had on the governance at a global level.
El presente artículo se ocupa de recrear el gobierno de Carlos Lleras Restrepo, como el momento d... more El presente artículo se ocupa de recrear el gobierno de Carlos Lleras Restrepo, como el momento de emergencia de una élite intelectual tecnocrática que empieza a copar mayor numero de espacios sociales gracias a las características particulares y estructurales especificas del período. Frente al contexto de crisis política -agotamiento de la legitimidad del régimen frentenacionalista-, de crisis económica -problema fiscal y de las salidas a la devaluación que se veían atravesadas por la presión de la banca multilateral y un contexto mundial en proceso de apertura económica-, y de crisis social -aumento de la violencia rural y la migración urbana-, el gobierno Lleras emerge como proyecto de modernización en tres frentes: la Reforma Constitucional -reorganización del aparato estatal-, el inicio de la transformación del modelo de desarrollo -formulación de una política macroeconómica relativamente heterodoxa-, y el relanzamiento de la Reforma Agraria -intento de reestructuración de las relaciones rurales-, que se constituyen en la semilla de cambio hacia un modelo distinto de mercado, Estado, y en el fondo, de reproducción social. Ese proyecto define el ingreso de la élite intelectual y la racionalidad tecnocrática al aparato estatal, erigiéndose como nuevo dispositivo de dominación elitista de la sociedad que relegitima la práctica gubernamental desde un discurso de pretendido saber objetivo. Constituye el mecanismo desarrollado para resolver la contradicción entre la intervención ampliada en la sociedad y el paso a un liberalismo de mercado, sin embargo, las circunstancias contradictorias en la cuales se da su emergencia definen su configuración particular y posterior desarrollo como agente de poder. Así, el fracaso del proyecto "modernizante" Llerista -que significa el inicio de la crisis del régimen político del Frente Nacional-, es la expresión de la ausencia todavía de un proyecto propio coherente y continuo que posteriormente agenciará este emergente cuerpo tecnocrático.
Reviewing the existing research on Colombia's participatory democracy over the last fifteen years... more Reviewing the existing research on Colombia's participatory democracy over the last fifteen years, this paper traces the trajectories shaping the political uses of participatory democracy in the country's local governance. It does so following a twofold strategy: on the one hand, it links these trajectories to wider transformations around participatory democracy related to discourses on Good Governance, the multiplication of non-electoral forms of participation by the citizenry, and to recent debates on the politics of participatory democracy in Latin-America. On the other hand, it outlines the specificities of the Colombian case by considering three particular features of its context: the materialization of the discourse on Participatory Good Governance, the bearings that the armed conflict has had in local governance, and the tensions arising from the emergence of the 'participatory strategy' of Consejos Comunales during president Uribe's tenure (2002-2010). Finally, the paper considers the effects of these features on civil society's engagement with participatory spaces, highlighting, nonetheless, encouraging progresses that seem to bridge the gap between these distorted developments and the normative promises brought about by participatory democracy a couple of decades ago.
The paper seeks to highlight some paradoxical consequences of multicultural policies since Colomb... more The paper seeks to highlight some paradoxical consequences of multicultural policies since Colombia's 1991 constitution. Via the study of two cases of ethnic conflicts presented in southwest Colombia, it argues that state's differentiated treatment of indigenous, afro-descendant and peasants groups has strengthened essentialist forms of ethnic-based identification. This, it is argued, is a byproduct of the way neoliberal multiculturalism and its rationality to govern diversity constitutes these “ethnic subjectivities”. In this manner, power relations are redefined in these places, provoking the emergence of conflicts between ethnic actors as a consequence of the reinforcement of differences in terms of territorial organization, differential rights, claim to state resources, and in the end, the conception of the public space they share. Rather than questioning the value of cultural diversity in a democratic regime, the aim is to highlight the need to change our understanding and treatment of ethnic diversity in public policy. This requires, first of all, a transformation of the conception of citizenship beyond a juridical and administrative status, as well as the abandonment of the entrepreneurial ethics of competition insert in current multicultural policies. Similarly, it would call for the articulation of these ethnic identities with a pluralistic ethos that defends diversity not based on ethnic essentialism but through a shared constitution of the public space by these actors