Jun Borras, Institute of Social Studies (ISS)
Lucia Goldfarb, Transnational Institute and PhD at International Development Studies (IDS)

So-called ‘land grabbing’, large-scale land acquisitions mainly in regions in Africa and Asia, is increasingly also an issue in Latin America. Domestic and transnational companies and sometimes governments buy or lease large pieces of land mainly for export-oriented food-production, but also for bio-fuels. Initially hailed by investors and some developing countries as a new potential for agricultural development, investment in land has recently been criticized by a number of civil society, governmental, and multinational actors for the various negative impacts that it has had on local communities.

In this debate on land-grabbing in Latin America, the following questions will be central:

- what are the main regions in Latin America where land grabbing is taking place?
- what are the main factors driving land grabbing in these region?
- how does recent land grabbing process differ from the past?
- what have been the reactions of local populations and political actors?
- what are the role of governmental and non-governmental organizations in this process?
- what needs to be done to solve the social, political and economic problems caused by land-grabbing?

Jun Borras is Associate Professor in Rural Development, Environment and Population at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, Netherlands. Jun is also Adjunct Professor, COHD at China Agricultural University, Beijing; a Fellow for Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy in California, Coordinator for Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies (ICAS), and Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Peasant Studies (JPS). Saturnino 'Jun' M Borras Jr. is a political activist and academic who has been deeply involved in rural social movements in the Philippines and internationally since the early 1980s. Borras was part of the core organising team that established the international peasant movement La Via Campesina and has written extensively on land issues and agrarian movements.

Lucia Goldfarb is an Argentinean sociologist specialized in rural development; she worked as a researcher in CEIL / CONICET in Buenos Aires, on rural labor and development issues. She received an MA in Development Studies with a minor in Environment and Development from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague in 2006. Her Master Thesis was focused on the restructuring of the wine sector in Argentina. She is a founding member of the Dutch section of the Foodfirst Information and Action Network (FIAN-Netherlands) where she co-authored a report on agrofuels in Brazil in 2008. In 2007 she joined TNI as a Next Generation Scholar, where she worked as a co-coordinator of the CREPE-TNI agrofuels project. Lucia regularly consults with TNI's Agrarian Justice team and is currently a PhD Researcher in International Development Studies at the University of Utrecht in the context of the IS Academy on Land Governance (LANDac). Within LANDac Lucia is developing her project on soya expansion and governance in the "South-American Chaco" region. Her research interests are related to rural development, land governance, political ecology and conflict studies.

Leonardo Padura, novelista y periodista cubano, conocido especialmente por sus novelas policiacas del detective Mario Conde.

Licenciado de Filología por la Universidad de La Habana, en 1980. Narrador, periodista, guionista de cine, crítico y ensayista. Después de trabajar en varios medios cubanos, se dedica de forma independiente a la escritura y el periodismo colaborando con diferentes medios.

El escritor y periodista Leonardo Padura se ha convertido en el primer cubano en obtener el prestigioso premio literario francés Roger Caillois. Alabado y premiado en varias ocasiones por su última obra publicada en 2009 "El hombre que amaba los perros", este último galardón sin embargo ha tenido para él una connotación especial.

Ignacio Telesca, CONICET - Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Universität zu Köln

Ignacio Telesca se doctoró en Historia por la Universidad Torcuato di Tella en Buenos Aires. Desde el 2003 se desempeñó como miembro de equipos de investigación y en la docencia universitaria. Perteneció al Equipo Nacional de Misiones de la Conferencia Episcopal Paraguaya, al Centro de Estudios Paraguayos Antonio Guasch, y a la Comisión de Verdad y Justicia, entre otros organismos. Desde el 2007 se halla a cargo de la Colección Bicentenario del Centro de Estudios Antropológicos de la Universidad Católica (CEADUC).

Tras la guerra contra la triple alianza (1864-1870) el país quedó completamente destruido y su población diezmada. La ideología de las vencedoras se imponía sobre los restos de la sociedad: «la guerra se hizo contra la barbarie, la civilización ha llegado». Ante esta situación las nuevas generaciones se vieron en la necesidad de pensarse a sí mismos, reflexionar su identidad: «¿qué es el Paraguay? ¿Quiénes somos los paraguayos?». En sintonía con lo que ocurría en otras partes de América, ha de surgir la idea que el Paraguay es una nación mestiza, y de ese sustrato surge lo distintivo de la identidad paraguaya. Veremos sin embargo que se plantea un mestizaje en los orígenes, lo que no implicaba una aceptación de las poblaciones indígenas contemporáneas (menos de los afrodescendientes). Al mismo tiempo podemos apreciar que justamente esta ideología del mestizaje es también utilizada para apagar toda denuncia social sobre la explotación de los trabajadores en los yerbales. Sin embargo, en el caso paraguayo hay un plus: esta idea de la nación mestiza con sus implicancias se mantuvo imperante hasta nuestros días. La intención de la charla es entonces mostrar cómo y por qué surge está idea de Paraguay como nación mestiza, y por qué lograr sobrevivir tanto tiempo.

Daniel C. Hellinger, Webster University (St. Louis)
Daniel C. Hellinger is Professor of Political Science and Director of the International Relations program at Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri. He has published widely on Latin American politics, and regularly comments on Latin American politics for the InterAmerican Dialogue’s Latin American Advisor. In 2011 his book Comparative Politics of Latin America: Democracy at Last? (Routledge) was released, as well as his co-edited volume Venezuela's Bolivarian Democracy: Participation, Politics, and Culture Under Chávez (Duke University Press).

23/03/12 CEDLA Seminar: Todos somos migrantes
Long-distance and local contacts of Latin American migrants

Theme

The speakers of this seminar address the various ways in which transnational migrants use their transnational and local networks to settle down, feel connected, make a livelihood in a new country and remain in touch with their families back home. Aspects of the physical and virtual social networks will be discussed, ranging from Facebook groups and receiving committees to home-town organizations and governmental programs in the countries of origin.

Almut Schilling-Vacaflor, GIGA (Hamburg)
La consulta previa con las comunidades afectadas surgió como uno de los temas centrales en los conflictos socio-ambientales actuales en torno a las industrias extractivas en los países andinos. A pesar de las obligaciones de los estados de cumplir con el derecho humano internacional, la institucionalización y la aplicación del derecho a la consulta y al consentimiento todavía son procesos recientes y muy poco estudiados. La exposición primero pretende dar un panorama general del marco legal y de las prácticas en Bolivia, Perú y Ecuador en la implementación de consultas previas. En un segundo momento se reflexionará sobre los avances, las limitaciones y los conflictos en los primeros procesos de consultas pre-legislativas en el Perú y en la aplicación del derecho a la consulta en el sector hidrocarburífero en Bolivia desde 2007. La exposición intenta dar respuestas a preguntas cómo Cuáles factores favorecen o inhiben la implementación de consultas previas efectivas?, Cuáles son las contestaciones y conflictos entre las instancias estatales y las organizaciones indígenas y campesinas que surgieron en los procesos de consulta? y Cuál es el resultado substancial de estos procesos, o sea, cuál es la incidencia de los pueblos y comunidades consultados en las medidas administrativas y legislativas en cuestión?

Raquel Gil-Montero, CONICET - Universidad de Tucumán (Argentina)
Raquel Gil Montero studied history at the National University of Córdoba, Argentina. Since 2002 Gil Montero has been full time researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, at the Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales at the National University of Tucumán. Her specialties are Indigenous population, social history of the Andes, herders and miners. Since 2009 she has been Editor of Población & Sociedad, a social sciences journal edited in Tucumán.

Alex van Stipriaan, KIT/Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
Referent: Rivke Jaffe, Universiteit Leiden

Het onderzoek van Alex van Stipriaan is voornamelijk gewijd aan de geschiedenis en culturen van Suriname en wat tegenwoordig de ‘Black Atlantic’ wordt genoemd – de onderling verbonden geschiedenissen van West- en Centraal-Afrika, Afro-Amerika en West-Europa. Hij heeft bijna dertig jaar onderzoekservaring op dit gebied. Hij is vooral geïnteresseerd in vormen van creolisatie binnen zowel zichtbare als verborgen cultuuraspecten. Van Stipriaan is hoogleraar Caribische geschiedenis aan de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, waar hij zich voornamelijk bezighoudt met de geschiedenis van de slavernij en de effecten daarvan op het heden. Hij heeft veel vaardigheid opgedaan met het toepassen en delen van academische kennis en expertise voor/met een breder publiek, variërend van collega-academici tot maatschappelijke bewegingen in Nederland, Suriname en de Nederlandse Antillen. Daarnaast was hij medecurator en -redacteur van tentoonstellingen en (school)-televisiedocumentaires over dit vakgebied.

04/11/11 The Empire of the Scalpel: Plastic surgery in Brazil

Alexander Edmonds, University of Amsterdam
Referent: Lorraine Nencel (VU)

Alexander Edmonds is assistant professor of anthropology and director of the masters program in medical anthropology and sociology at the University of Amsterdam. In 2010 he published Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex and Plastic Surgery in Brazil. This book tells the remarkable story of how a developing nation with extremes of wealth and poverty became a global leader in plastic surgery. Key field sites were public hospitals offering cosmetic operations to the poor. Drawing on conversations with maids and their elite mistresses, divorced housewives, black celebrities, favela residents, and transvestite prostitutes, it explores what beauty means and does for different consumers. It tracks how plastic surgery became therapeutically compelling in Brazil, and analyzes the ethical implications of medical enhancement. Related work examines the emerging field of "aesthetic medicine" and the significance of beauty in consumer capitalism. As a visual anthropologist, Edmonds conducts media ethnography and uses photography and digital video. Based on fieldwork with black activists, advertising agencies, and television studios he has analyzed how racial identities are changing in post-dictatorship Brazil.

21/10/11 Bevrijdingstheologie en de (on)mogelijke democratisering van Brazilië

Vrijdag 21 Oktober, 15.30u
Nico Vink, Auteur van: Van rooms naar hedendaags spiritueel (Meinema 2011) Referent: André Droogers (em. Hoogleraar VU)

Tussen 1968 en 1985 kreeg de Latijns-Amerikaanse bevrijdingstheologie en het daarbij horende kerkmodel veel aandacht, ook van de Nederlandse media. De R.K. Kerk zou zo een grote rol spelen in het democratiseringsproces van Brazilie. Nu lijkt het alleen maar geschiedenis. Heeft "de keuze voor de armen" echte impact gehad? Waarom is deze trend onzichtbaar geworden? Sociale ongelijkheid is in Brazilie toch nog steeds groot?

12/10/11 Are post-colonialism and decoloniality of power enough to understand Latin America? A post-imperialist perspective

In colaboration with NALACS & Leiden University
Gustavo Lins Ribeiro, University of Brasilia

07/10/11 A Border Interplay: South and North in the Transnational Mobility across Mexico

Dr. José Carlos G. Aguiar
Department of Latin American Studies, Leiden University

Abstract: While the US-Mexico borderline is a largely documented region, there is relatively much less known about the ‘other’ Mexican border, that is, the one at the South with Guatemala and Belize. The interplay between the two borders helps to explain migration and security phenomena in Latin America. An estimated 30 million people of Mexican origin -from which 10 million born in Mexico- live in the United States; at the South, nearly 150 thousand Central Americans cross every year to Mexico, many of which aim to reach the United States. A number of polices has been implemented to ‘securitize’ the Northern border, that in the end has an impact on the programmes to control migration flows in the South. In this lecture, the interaction between the two borders will be addressed to discuss human mobility in Mexico. What are the migration streams across Mexico? How do they become observable at the national borders? To what extent does the current security crisis affect migration routes and practices in Mexico?

23/09/11 Crisis estructurales y economias extractivas: una perspectiva desde Ecuador

Dr Fander Falconí, coordinador del doctorado de economía del desarrollo de la Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) - Sede Ecuador
Comentarista: Dr Barbara Hogenboom (CEDLA)

América Latina vive un nuevo momento de cambio, luego de varias estrategias de desarrollo, desde la sustitución de importaciones hasta el neoliberalismo. Este cambio está marcado por la presencia de gobiernos democráticos, algunos de ellos con clara tendencia a recuperar las capacidades públicas de planificación, distribución y redistribución, tal como el de Ecuador. Las crisis estructurales del capitalismo central plantean desafíos a las sociedades latinoamericanas, más aún debido a su inserción histórica en los mercados globales como proveedoras de bienes primarios. Estos desafíos están siendo enfrentados, aunque aún de manera parcial, con novedosos procesos de integración y propuestas de caracter global como la Iniciativa Yasuni (ITT) promovidas por el Ecuador.

27/05/11 Venezuela in the 21st Century

Edwin Koopman (VPRO) & Javier Corrales (Amherst College, Massachusetts)
Discussant: Barbara Hogenboom (CEDLA)

Edwin Koopman and Javier Corrales on their recent books:
Edwin Koopman, Hugo Chávez. Oliekoning in Venezuela (Uitgeverij Podium, 2011)
Javier Corrales and Michael Penfold, Dragon in the Tropics: Hugo Chávez and the Political Economy of Revolution in Venezuela(Brookings Institution Press, 2010)

The position of Venezuela in Latin America remains a hotly debated issue, especially because of the contested nature of the presidency of Hugo Chávez. Very recently two books were published that both in their own way try to find answers to the enigma’s of contemporary Venezuela and its eloquent but controversial leader. Edwin Koopman and Javier Corrales will shortly introduce their books and the ideas behind them. Then Barbara Hogenboom will present a critical review of the most important ideas presented in these two books.

13/05/2011 The Decline of Conservative Rule in Brazil: A Reversal of Political Fortune
Speaker: Al Montero (Carleton College)

The 2006 elections in Brazil swept conservative political machines from what had been a decades long domination of state governments in the poor Northeastern region of the country. Most surprising still was the fact that most of these conservative machines were replaced by leftist oppositions that had never before gained the opportunity to rule these states. The presentation will explain the erosion of conservative rule in the poor Brazilian states and the rise of leftist oppositions. Compared against explanations based on economic modernization, social spending, and fiscal reform, the data best support the hypothesis that the organizational and spatial dimensions of leftist mobilization in these states have shifted to the detriment of conservative machines. Specifically, urban mobilization of leftist supporters has determined the electoral success of these oppositions. The study also explains where conservatives maintain a floor of support based on the continuation of clientele networks.

15/04/11 The Origins of Drug Trafficking in the Americas: Illicit Cocaine, 1945-73

Speaker: Paul Gootenberg (State University of New York)
Please find here the first part of this lecture, the rest of the lecture is available on our You Tube Channel:

08/04/11 The Chevron-Texaco court case in Ecuador: Countering environmental injustice?

Speaker: Joan Martínez Alier, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) - Autonomous University of Barcelona

In February 2011 Chevron was ordered by an Ecuadorean court to pay a fine of US$ 9.5 billion for the environmental damage caused in Ecuador's Amazon region by Texaco, with which Chevron merged in 2001. This decision is applauded by environmental and indigenous organizations that have struggled for environmental justice for 17 years. The case holds interesting parallels to that over oil spills and gas flaring by Royal Dutch Shell's subsidiary in Nigeria that is still under a Dutch court. These court decisions indicate that the environmental injustice of natural resource extraction in Latin America and other raw-materials producing regions may have reached its limits, and that local and global counter-forces are becoming more successful.

In his lecture, Joan Martinez Alier will examine the Chevron-Texaco court case (1993-2011) and the economic and legal reasoning behind the recent large fine. Comparisons will be made to similar cases in Latin America (e.g. against several companies for damage caused by the nematicide DBCP) and elsewhere. He will also give an overview of the main trends and limitations of previous environmental policies and academic approaches to environmental governance in the global South, and propose steps towards more sustainable and equitable natural resource use in the North and the South. Read more

Please be aware that this lecture is online available. Click here

Video: Radio Nederland, la emisora internacional holandesa. 24 horas de noticias, análisis e información en español

25/03/2011 ¿Desigualdad de ingreso con igualdad de oportunidades? Consideraciones sobre la legitimidad ciudadana del modelo de desarrollo chileno

Speaker: Vicente Espinoza (Universidad de Santiago de Chile/TCLA)
Referent: Patricio Silva (Universiteit Leiden)

Los avances en el bienestar de la población chilena en los últimos 20 años se han enfrentado a la percepción de la población de que las recompensas no están distribuidas de acuerdo con su esfuerzo. La paradoja de que tal constatación se acompañe por una desafección respecto de la política y las prácticas ciudadanas enmarca la discusión actual sobre la desigualdad en Chile. En la presentación discutiré el diagnóstico de fluidez en la movilidad social chilena propuesta como expresión de igualación de oportunidades, mostrando las barreras a la inclusión que limitan el acceso de los sectores medios a condiciones de bienestar. Avanzaré algunas consideraciones con respecto a las alternativas abiertas en estas condiciones desde el punto de vista de los derechos sociales. 

28/01/2011 Seminar 'Mobility and Urbanization'

This seminar focuses on the influence of contemporary forms of mobility on urbanization processes and local development in Latin America. Using various disciplinary perspectives, the presenters explore how national and transnational flows of people, money, and land titles influence incipient and existing urban areas. Themes such as gentrification, polycentric cities and residential tourism will be addressed, presenting data from Lima, Cusco, Cuenca and two coastal regions in Costa Rica. The aim of the seminar is to generate some fresh insights in the current challenges for Latin American urban development.

Presentations:

Chair: Dr. Annelou Ypeij - CEDLA
Dr. Christien Klaufus - CEDLA / Introduction
Dr. Griet Steel - IOB-University of Antwerp / Displacement by/for development in two Andean cities
Femke van Noorloos – Utrecht University / Foreignization of land in Latin America: the case of residential tourism in Central America
Dr. Ana M. Fernandez Maldonado – Delft University of Technology / Subcentre development in peripheral areas of Latin American cities: the case of Lima, Peru
Prof. Dr. Annelies Zoomers – Utrecht University / Reflections

26/11/10 When is participatory local environmental governance likely to emerge? A study of collective action in participatory municipal environmental councils in Brazil

Speaker: Frank van Laerhoven, Utrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Innovation and Environmental Sciences
Discussant: Lorenzo Pellegrini, Institute of Social Studies

Why is local environmental governance in Brazil shaped through the collective action of many, frequently interacting actors in some municipalities, whilst in others it does not take the form of deliberative and inclusive decision-making? I address this question by zooming in on the Conselhos Municipais de Meio Ambiente. Through multivariate logistical regression (n=5,202), I show that a large business community, combined with “small local government” adds significantly to the likelihood of finding participatory forms of solving environmental problems in a municipality, especially when communities have learned from prior experience with participatory policymaking in other areas. Through multivariate linear regression (n=1,365), I establish that depth and breadth of participatory environmental governance processes increase when, amongst other things, people have previous experience with other types of participatory councils, and when there are fewer local government officials per capita.

International Conference, Brazil under Lula: A Country in Transformation

Organizers: CEDLA – Leiden University – Utrecht University

11th November 2010
Time: 9-17.30h
Address: Doelenzaal, UvA. Singel 421-427, 1012 WP Amsterdam

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

After sixteen years of stable democratic governance and eight years of federal rule by the progressive Workers’ Party, Brazil seems about to take up a new role as a regional leader and an emerging global power. But has this new Brazil really begun to effectively address the many problems the country has been facing over the past half century? In consideration of the presidential election this year, this one day international conference Brazil under Lula: a Country in Transformation aims to review and discuss from a scholarly perspective the public policies of the past eight years in the context of a broader process of transformations in Brazil and in the world.

Topics

Economic development
Poverty alleviation
Social policies
Energy, sustainability, and environmental policies
Rural transformation and land reform
Urban issues and policies
Violence and insecurity
Politics and democracy
International relations

Speakers

04/11/10 Local resistances against mining in Peru: territories, development and democracy in dispute
Raphael Hoetmer

Over the last years mining projects have become the principal source of social conflict in Peru, due to the enormous expansion of the sector throughout the country. Conflicts can have very different kind of reasons (access to land and water, financial compensation for local populations, etc.), but in some cases the economical, political and territorial organisation of Peruvian society itself seem to be at stake. Hoetmer will analyse this scenario, with special emphasis on the conflicts in the northern department of Piura, in which local populations ended up in conflict with the central government due to their rejection of mining (in popular referendums organised by local municipalities) and their claim of the right to choose their own developmental model.
Speaker: Raphael Hoetmer is Coordinator of the Program on Democracy and Global Transformation related to the San Marcos University in Lima, PhD student at the Institute for Social Studies, and colaborator with the National Confederation of Communities Affected by Mining in Peru (CONACAMI).

01/10/10 Las amenazas a la Seguridad Nacional y la respuesta estatal en México Marcos Pablo Moloeznik. Profesor de la Universidad de Guadalajara (México)
Referente: José Carlos Aguiar (Universiteit Leiden)

Antes de la conferencia, se sugiere consultar el siguiente artículo de Marcos Pablo Moloeznik: “Principales efectos de la militarización del combate al narcotráfico en México”; en, Renglones, Revista Arbitrada en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, N° 61, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, México, septiembre 2009 – marzo 2010, ISSN 0186-4963, páginas 1-15. Se trata de una presentación que intenta dar cuenta de la situación que guarda el narcotráfico, a la sazón, principal amenaza a la seguridad nacional mexicana, a partir del análisis del escenario estratégico regional. Adicionalmente, se incluye una interpretación del marco normativo y conceptual en materia de seguridad en México, la respuesta estatal basada en la estrategia de militarización de combate a la delincuencia organizada, así como una evaluación preliminar de sus resultados.

21/05/10 Fortalezas y desafíos de la Gobernanza Ambiental en México
Dra. Miriam Alfie (UAM/CEDLA), Discussant: Dr. Fábio de Castro (CEDLA)

La ponencia analizará las principales corrientes de pensamiento sobre el concepto de gobernanza y enfatizará su importancia en la constitución de políticas públicas relacionadas con temas ambientales.
A partir del auge del proceso de globalización, los Estados-nación iniciaron una serie de acciones y procedimientos que los colocó en un papel diferente al desarrollado hasta mitad de los años ochenta. Algunos teóricos sostienen que hoy la política se conforma por la descentralización del papel estatal en la toma de decisiones, nuestra intensión es comprender cómo la gobernanza surge en este periodo, cuál es su alcance y cómo y cuál ha sido el papel del Estado-nación en este proceso.
Por otra parte, el concepto gobernanza implica una ampliación de actores políticos en la toma de decisiones. La deliberación, la organización social, la conformación identitaria y el territorio son factores clave para lograr el éxito en la inclusión y empoderamiento que diversos actores sociales pueden lograr en esta nueva dimensión de la política.
Bajo estas dos perspectivas, analizaremos como se presenta la gobernanza ambiental en México, enfatizaremos sobre casos concretos dónde se ha tratado de poner en práctica esta forma de hacer política, describiremos cuáles han sido sus logros y, por último, evaluaremos los desafíos que esta nueva forma de hacer política significa a futuro para este país.

28/04/10 Een hoofdrol voor jongeren in de Latijns-Amerikaanse film
Dr. Arij Ouweneel (CEDLA) i.s.m. het Latijns Amerika Festival (LAFF)

In het kader van het komende Latin American Film Festival (6 t/m 14 mei in Utrecht) wordt er stilgestaan bij een opmerkelijk verschijnsel. Meer dan hun Europese en Noord-Amerikaanse collega’s maken regisseurs uit Latijns-Amerika gebruik van jongeren om serieuze maatschappijkritiek vorm te geven. Ofschoon het verschijnsel al oud is — denk aan Los Olvidados (Mexico, 1950) van Buñuel — lijkt er een kentering aan de gang te zijn in de rol die de jonge held van de film moet spelen: van potentieel revolutionair tot een intens verveelde puber. Daarmee lijken deze regisseurs de traditie van de verbeelding van revolutie en hoop te verbreken. Is die verveling in deze zin te duiden? Zijn de regisseurs politiek conservatief geworden? Of wordt er juist een nieuwe vorm van progressiviteit in beeld gebracht? Aan de hand van een bespreking van recente films wordt getracht een antwoord te formuleren.

23/04/10 Quiebre y recuperación democrática en Chile: una perspectiva histórica
Prof.dr. Ana María Stuven (Universidad Católica de Chile/ TCLA, Leiden)

Desde la fundación de la república, los chilenos han ostentado con orgullo su institucionalidad y estabilidad en el proceso hacia la democratización política. Sin embargo, en l973 el país sufrió un serio revés en la continuidad de ese proceso debido al golpe militar que lideró Augusto Pinochet, el cual puso en duda la narrativa que apoyaba la construcción historiográfica chilena. En esta charla se presentará una visión del proceso de construcción del Estado y la nación chilenos como un aporte a la comprensión de los fenómenos del quiebre y la recuperación de la democracia en su contexto político y social.

9/04/2010 The rule of the jungle: forest management in Bolivia, Nicaragua and Honduras
Lorenzo Pellegrini, ISS, Discussant: Heleen van den Hombergh (IUCN)

Desde la fundación de la república, los chilenos han ostentado con orgullo su institucionalidad y estabilidad en el proceso hacia la democratización política. Sin embargo, en l973 el país sufrió un serio revés en la continuidad de ese proceso debido al golpe militar que lideró Augusto Pinochet, el cual puso en duda la narrativa que apoyaba la construcción historiográfica chilena. En esta charla se presentará una visión del proceso de construcción del Estado y la nación chilenos como un aporte a la comprensión de los fenómenos del quiebre y la recuperación de la democracia en su contexto político y social.

19/03/10 Topics in the urban ethnography of São Paulo
Heitor Frúgoli (USP/TCLA, Leiden), Discussant: Mattijs van de Port (VU)

This lecture will explore, from an anthropological perspective, the current urban interventions in the district of Luz, situated in the inner city of São Paulo (population 11 million). This district is caught between the conflicting interests of the preservation of historical patrimony, the promotion of cultural consumption and the historical use of the area’s public spaces by the working class. This problem will be analyzed with emphasis on the following issues:
– the specific representations of patrimony found in a metropolis marked by a precarious and transitory urban landscape;
– local government policy on urban improvement and the stigmatization of areas occupied predominantly by the working class;
– the rethinking of traditional dichotomies, such as the (analytically divisive) polarity “politics of urban intervention” vs. “resistance of affected groups”; and 
– the multiple meanings attributed to the notion of bairro (‘district’ or ‘neighborhood’).

[This talk is based on a paper co-written with Jessica Sklair].

26/02/10 Colour of paradise: The global trade in Colombian Emeralds, 1538-1800
Kris Lane (College of William and Mary/Universiteit Leiden), Discussant: Arij Ouweneel (CEDLA)

Colombian emeralds, which reached Europe only after the Spanish conquest of the Muisca highlands around Bogotáin 1538, were greatly esteemed by Habsburg and other Eurasian princes as gems and objects of scientific curiosity. Throughout Christian Europe, faceted, rounded, and tumbled emeralds were incorporated into crowns, rings, religious ornaments, and other jeweled artifacts. Some extraordinary crystals were showcased in wonder cabinets alongside Native American featherwork and other New World marvels. Yet the largest stones produced in early modern Colombia soon found their outlet not in Europe or the Americas – or even China, destination of much New World silver after 1570 – but in the Near East and South Asia, where they were consumed, hoarded, ritually exchanged, and pillaged by the rulers of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires and their many tributaries, neighbors, and offshoots. This illustrated talk traces the extraordinary journey of emeralds from the mines of Colombia to the early modern world's most opulent courts.

01/12/09 AQUÍ ESTAMOS PARA SIEMPRE: A documentary on indigenous self-government and autonomy in Bolivia

Introduction and presentation: Peter Oud, film director. Discussant: Dr. Willem Assies (Wageningen University). Organized by NALACS and CEDLA
“Aquí estamos para siempre” is a series of films about the Chiquitanos of Lomerío, an indigenous territory in the eastern lowlands of Bolivia. In these four documentaries the Lomerians show how they themselves manage their territory and struggle to improve their standard of living without going against the essential values of their culture. Especially for this meeting, film director Peter Oud has made a compilation of about 45 minutes of these documentaries in order to give a short and comprehensive impression of the situation and the most urgent issues the Chiquitanos are dealing with. This film shows the pre-election period for the Constituent Assembly and the referendum on autonomy in 2006 and focuses on existing controversies among the indigenous population of Lomerío about which strategy to follow in their struggle for autonomy against an ever growing influence from outside.

26-27/11/09 Sex and sexuality in Latin America and the Caribbean. International conference

This international conference seeks to explore contemporary issues in the study of sex and sexuality in Latin America and the Caribbean. In particular, we are interested in shifts in the political economy of intimacy and the ways in which cultural, political and economic power structures shape sexual practices and ideologies in the region.

20/11/09 Fom Populism to Authoritarianism in Venezuela: Why/How did Chávez do it?

Javier Corrales (Amherst College), Referent: Kees Biekart (ISS)
In the past eight months, the Hugo Chávez administration in Venezuela has launched an autocratic blitzkrieg of a sort not seen in Latin America since the era of military juntas ended in the 1980s. After obtaining a 55 percent victory in a February referendum to eliminate term limits, Chávez has set about dispensing with every potential political challenge of consequence in Venezuela. Opposition leaders who won regional elections in December have been pushed into self-exile—to avoid arrest under selectively applied corruption laws—or denied funding to run their governments. Other leaders have been jailed. The government has begun to ban books from libraries and, with the help of the military, has also accelerated the arbitrary nationalization of private assets. Chávez has repressed independent student groups, and is openly threatening to shut down Globovisión, the most critical television news channel left in the country. In essence, Chávez has changed a flawed democracy into a new type of authoritarian regime. This talk will discuss the main contours of the change in regime, how it took place and whether it is sustainable in Venezuela or replicable elsewhere in Latin America.

06/11/09 The Challenge of Progressive Change in Bolivia: Run-up to the 2009 Elections

George Gray Molina (Princeton University), Referent: Ton Salman (VU)
As Bolivians prepare for December presidential elections, there is growing attention focused on the first four years of the Morales administration. This paper reviews some of the challenges of progressive change in Bolivia. Behind the nationalization of hydrocarbons, the approval of a new constitution, the recognition of indigenous rights and the emergence of new social transfers lies a longstanding tension in recent Bolivian history. It is a tension that affects class relations, intercultural citizenship and regional identities in a plural society. It might be called the "other revolution", a slow, cumulative process of social, demographic and economic transformation that has changed the shape of Bolivian society. Politics, even political conflict, should be seen as a long-term faciliator of compromises and partial solutions that supports this process. The future challenge of progressive change, however, requires defusing excessive political polarization and violence in ways that link these two processes --one long term, the other short term. The challenge of progressive change is thus not only about politics, but about charting an alternative path of development in Latin America.

09/10/09 Transformación agraria, desarrollo y pobreza en el Ecuador

Antonio Gaybor (CAMAREN, Ecuador), Referent: Cris Kay (ISS)
Antonio Gaybor es docente de la Universidad Central del Ecuador y Director del Consorcio de Capacitación para el Manejo de los Recursos Naturales Renovables (CAMAREN), promotor del Foro de Recursos Hídricos. El Foro reúne a un gran número de plataformas de usuarios y actores involucrados en la gestión del agua a nivel provincial y nacional, su objetivo es promover la formulación de propuestas alternativas para la gestión del agua más equitativa y sostenible en el Ecuador. Gaybor tratará la temática del desarrollo desigual en la zona rural del Ecuador y cómo, en los últimos años, se ha desarrollado el 'agri-business'. Ejemplo de ello son las grandes plantaciones agrícolas en la Sierra Ecuatoriana, siendo un eje importante de desarrollo en el país. Provocando cambios en las relaciones sociales en el campo; en las formas y lógicas de producción; produciendo una re-concentración de los recursos naturales más valiosos en las manos de las grandes agro-empresas, cada vez menos en posesión de los pequeños agricultores y grupos indígenas. En las últimas dos décadas, especialmente el agua se ha convertido en un elemento fundamental para el proceso de acumulación del ‘agri-business’. Por la creciente presión demográfica, y los cambios en la agricultura, en América Latina y en Ecuador, se puede observar una creciente disminución de la Unidad Productiva Campesina (UPA), ocasionando que las familias rurales dependan cada vez más de la venta de su mano de obra para poder subsistir. Sin embargo, la agricultura familiar y subfamiliar es la que más contribuye a la soberanía alimentaria del pueblo de América Latina y ecuatoriano.