Panel session A

A1 Cooperation and Exchange: Latin America, The Nordic Countries and Beyond

Chair: Jesper Nielsen

Social cohesion down to earth: guided shared reading from Aarhus to São Paulo

Sonia N. Hotimsky, independent scholar and Anne Line Dalsgård, Department of anthropology, Aarhus University.

The paper takes its point of departure one evening in a classroom at Colégio Santa Cruz, São Paulo, where a group of EJA students each receive a poem by João Cabral de Melo Neto, Na morte dos rios, from their teacher, read it aloud together and share their experiences with it. EJA is a mode of education for youth and adults who have previously abandoned formal schooling, and which allows them to conclude their basic education. All students this particular evening are in their 40-60s, and, so it seems, from the Northeast of Brazil. The poem is about rivers drying out, about poços and cacimbas, and a long exchange soon develops about how to dig a well, how deep it should be, and the difference between um poço and uma cacimba. Once in a while the facilitator, Giulia, turn their attention towards the poem again. They are practicing 'shared reading'. The method shared reading was developed in England, from where it travelled to Denmark and other countries. Research indicates that it alleviates depression and anxiety, promote confidence, improved cognition and psychological well-being as well as strengthen community and senses of citizenship. It was brought to Brazil by a Danish-funded research collaboration. In this paper we reflect upon the potentials of shared reading in Brazil, where, as in other countries, it has been applied mostly among youth and adults in diverse institutional settings. We also discuss some of the specificities of contexts where it has flourished, and the obstacles or setbacks it has confronted in Brazil. The paper is mainly empirical but includes theoretical reflections upon the role of literature as an instigator of togetherness.

Posgrados en Estudios latinoamericanos: cooperación interregional en contextos de multicrisis, incertidumbre y digitalización global

Ana Rivoir, Universidad de la República, Montevideo.

Algunos posgrados sobre América Latina combinan modalidad presencial y virtual, que habilita la participación de estudiante y docentes de diversos territorios. La aceleración de la digitalización post pandemia de COVID, plantea nuevas oportunidades, reflexiones y desafíos. Por un lado, los aprendizajes producidos ameritan una reflexión sobre la pertinencia de la virtualidad en distintos momentos del proceso de formación. Las mejoras en las condiciones de infraestructura en América Latina plantean nuevos desafíos de formación a nivel global (Rivoir, 2022). A su vez, la persistente importancia de la presencialidad y la oportunidad del trabajo en territorio, con actores y protagonistas de las sociedades latinoamericanas adquiere una vigencia indiscutible. Una perspectiva interdisciplinar, no colonial, de aprendizaje mutuo que cuestione modelos comerciales de la educación superior es imperiosa. En la ponencia se presentarán estas reflexiones a partir de tres experiencias de formación: Maestría Bimodal de Estudios Contemporáneos en América Latina (Universidad de la República de Uruguay y Universidad Complutense de Madrid); Diploma de estudios superiores en América Latina (Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales, CLACSO); Escuela de Posgrados en Estudios sobre América Latina (Asociación Latinoamericana de Sociología, Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México) Estas combinan intercambio de carácter global de estudiantes, docentes e instituciones a partir de experiencias de formación híbrida o bimodal y abordan en forma crítica la región en temas cruciales como los problemas sociales, ecológicos, de la democracia, los conflictos y la inserción global del continente en un contexto de denominado por Calderón y Castells (2019) de multicrisis global. Referencias: Calderón, F. y Castells, M. (2019) La nueva América Latina. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica. Rivoir, Ana (2022) Higher education and digitalisation in the pandemic: Latin American lessons for the challenges of the future. En: New Visions f or Higher Education towards 2030. Paris: UNESCO.

Looking Back, but Mostly Forward: 50 Years of American Indian Cultures and Languages at UCPH

Jesper Nielsen, University of Copenhagen.

A chair in Central American and Ancient Indian Cultures was founded in 1949, but it was only in 1971 that students at University of Copenhagen could for the first time formally enroll in a study program named American Indian Languages and Cultures. Growing out of History of Religions, the curriculum initially focused on Nahuatl language and philology in Aztec sources from the 16^th century. Since then, the program and the research carried out has seen considerable changes, although the overall cross-disciplinary focus remains on Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, with MA-students having the possibility of turning their orientation towards North or South America. American Indian Languages and Cultures is one of UCPH’s so-called small subjects – in spite of the vast chronological, geographical and methodological breadth it covers - and has often been (and remains) in danger of being merged or closed. In this brief paper, I offer some reflections on the history of the program and in particular its shifting contacts with colleagues and collaborators in present-day Mesoamerica (Mexico, Guatemala and Belize), including those with indigenous heritage/ethnicities: From a somewhat removed philological exercise to a gradually more fieldwork-oriented and collaborative approach, but with a growing need to establish closer networks with indigenous scholars - including female investigators - in order to bring staff and students nearer to new developments, critical voices and indigenous perspectives on research and university education.

Open access in Latin America and (northern) Europe: Information infrastructures and circulation of knowledge

Christoph Müller, Ibero-American Institute Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation Berlin / REDIAL.

Open access and open science are central principles of scientific work and the exchange of research results in Latin America, some of which are also fixed in national laws (e.g. Argentina, Peru, and Mexico). This contrasts with European initiatives (e.g. Plan S), which are also intended to enable free access to and exchange of knowledge, but are based on funding models that prevent unrestricted access to knowledge and information. In order to overcome these knowledge asymmetries, multi-institutional and transnational cooperation between information infrastructures is of central importance. Using the example of Latin American and (North) European institutions and cooperation projects, this paper will examine and discuss the role of these information infrastructures in the circulation of knowledge. Examples for this critical discussion are: Red Europea de Información y Documentación sobre América Latina (REDIAL); Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin; Mecila: Maria Sibylla Merian Centre Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America; Latindex; SciELO; Redalyc; AmeliCA; LA Referencia; Manuelzão e Minguilim by the Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia (Ibict).

A2 Regionalismo, nuevo ciclo de izquierda y ascenso de la derecha libertaria en América Latina

Chairs: José Briceño Ruiz, Andrés Rivarola Puntigliano

Latin American far-right: particularities and effects on regionalism

Andrea Ribeiro Hoffmann, Pontificia Universidad Católica do Rio de Janeiro.

The emergence of far-right movements, parties and governments in several regions of the world signals a disruption, if not the demise, of the long wave of democratisation that began in the 1970s. In Latin America, one characteristic of these processes has been the contestation of the military dictatorships. This paper analyses the discourses and policies of Jair Bolsonaro, Javier Milei and José Antonio Kast regarding the military dictatorship in Brazil, Argentina and Chile, respectively in order to explore the particularities of the far-right in Latin America, and their effects on regionalism in this region.

La política de México hacia la Alianza del Pacífica y el T-MEC en el Gobierno de AMLO

María Antonia Correa Serrano, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana – Xochimilco, México.

La política exterior de México en el gobierno de Andrés Manuel López Obrador en sus primeros años de gobierno se centró en la relación bilateral con Estados Unidos con un fuerte sesgo económico, debido al peso que mantuvo la ratificación por el Senado del nuevo Tratado de Libre Comercio México, Estados Unidos y Canadá (T-MEC) y que sustituye al TLCAN. Esta prioridad bilateral con Estados Unidos ha sido un rasgo característico de la política exterior mexicana y que se explica por la histórica relación económica entre los dos países. Sin embargo, en los últimos años se ha dado un giro en la política exterior con un estrechamiento de las relaciones con América Latina, a medida que se fue dando el triunfo de los gobiernos de izquierda en la región en la cual la figura de López Obrador ha asumido un cierto liderazgo como promotor de la integración en los distintos foros regionales, manteniendo una relación de cooperación y conflicto con Estados Unidos debido a que ha promovido la inclusión de la izquierda radical en las Cumbres de las Américas y en los foros internacionales. Este y otros rasgos pragmáticos de la política exterior del actual gobierno si bien la diferencian de las anteriores hacen que aparezca como: a) Pragmática y contradictoria, b) De cooperación y conflicto con Estados Unidos en temas de migración y seguridad, y c) De recuperación de los principios tradicionales, respecto de no intervención, libre autodeterminación y el respeto a la soberanía nacional, con base en el artículo 89 de la Constitución Mexicana, d) Las relaciones con los países de la Alianza del Pacífico: entre la cooperación y el conflicto.

El regionalismo latinoamericano: entre las desavenencias ideológicas y sus problemas estructurales

José Briceño Ruiz, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

La palabra crisis se ha convertido en un elemento permanente en el estudio de los procesos de integración y cooperación regional en América Latina. Tras el análisis de varios procesos regionales en América Latina, en particular el Mercosur, la Comunidad Andina y el SICA, se observa que cuatro factores han estado presentes en casi todas las crisis que se han producido en eso bloques regionales: la ausencia de un consenso sobre el modelo económico del proceso de integración, la débil e ineficiente institucionalidad, la escasa participación de los actores económicos y sociales y la ausencia de un claro liderazgo. Estos son problemas estructurales del regionalismo en América Latina, que están más allá de los ciclos ideológicos que han vivido los países de esta parte del mundo en las tres últimas décadas. En esta ponencia se analiza como cada una de estas variables explican las recurrentes crisis del regionalismo en América Latina.

Why does rightwing extremism keep being electorally strong? A discussion of the Brazilian case

Einar Braathen, OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University.

In spite of electoral defeats and loss of governmental power, the extreme right wing forces in Latin America keep manifesting their capacity to do successful come backs as seen in Argentina in 2023. And if/when loosing presidential elections, they maintain a strong representation in the national assembly and in the media world (of traditional media as well as in the social media), as witnessed in Brazil after the 2022 elections. This paper aims at understanding why bolsonarismo keeps being popular in large segments of the population, as well as in the security forces, among conservative religious groups and in key parts of the economic elite. The paper will discuss two apparently contradictory perspectives on this phenomenon. The first one is inspired by Ernesto Laclau and emphasizes the emergence of identity politics in the right wing’s struggle for ideological and political hegemony. The paper will use discourse analysis to investigate how Bolsonaro mobilizes popular support through arguments related to (1) religious nationalism and moral values, (2) armed security forces (police and the army), and (3) anti-communism. By using these discursive components, social constructions of ‘the good citizen’ (o cidadão de bem) versus ‘the bad leftist’ are built. ‘The bad leftist’ category is viewed as a threat to national identity and security in a way that consolidates prospective voters in an affective imagined community. The other perspective is to assess to which extent, and how, the left wing – or centre-left – feed these constructions by their own failures to deliver what even their opponents agree is their ‘trade mark’: social justice, increased equality and power to ordinary people. When failing, they turn their main ideological assets into their main liabilities, effectively exploited by the media strategists of the far right. In other words, this perspective emphasizes more the rational game of politics, proposed by conventional political science. Finally, the paper examines advantages and challenges in combining these two perspectives.

A3 Post-liberal democracies and new authoritarianisms

Chair: Franz Xavier Barrios Suvelza

How far has the search for a post-liberal democracy progressed in Latin America?

Franz Xavier Barrios Suvelza, University of Erfurt.

If we want to evaluate the conceptual and practical relevance of a postliberal democracy (Wolff, 2013) in the present, we cannot avoid the experience of the great wave of constitutional that happened in Venezuela (1999) and then in Ecuador (2008) and Bolivia (2009), and what some authors call New Latin American Constitutionalism (NLK) (Tushnet 2017; Mc Manus 2021; Elkins 2017). This wave has produced developments that seem to represent a deviation from prevailing socio-institutional practices. Among these developments the issue of democracy stands out. The lecture is about the conceptual examination of whether the overcoming of the liberal and western understanding of democracy has been successful. To this end, the paper focuses on the anchoring of the alleged contribution to a different understanding of democracy in the 2009 Bolivian Constitution. Article 11 of the Bolivian constitution mentions three forms of government: representative, direct or participatory, and communitarian democracy. The presentation will first examine why this scheme is seen as overcoming Western and liberal democracy, at least from the perspective of academic proponents of this experiment (Santos, 2022; Exeni 2022). Second, it identifies the conceptual merits and weaknesses of this approach. It does so, however, not by showing the distance of this model from a (supposedly) "correct" model, the liberal-Western model, but by clarifying the distance of this model from a counterfoil, which the lecture calls methodological democratism (MD). In doing so, the talk follows up on Ober's (2017) work critically rethinking the concept of democracy by capturing democracy apart from liberal premises. Because MD separates democracy from liberalism from the outset and avoids an ideological defense of representative or Western democracy, his critique of the alleged conceptual and practical advantages of the Bolivian experiment is rather neutral. Finally, it is asked what benefits MD as analytical instrument may offer in comparative theory.

All the president’s men? The attitudinal consequences of strong presidents in Latin America

Asbel Bohigues, University of Valencia and Mariana Sendra, University of Deusto.

This paper aims to contribute to the literature on the consequences of presidentialism on political attitudes, in providing empirical evidence that support for the president may affect attitudes toward political institutions and the political system in Latin America. Previous research has shown how the government-opposition divide affects evaluations of democracy and tolerant attitudes. In this paper we go one step further and consider citizen’s respect for institutions and support for the political system, which both speak to the basic structures of power in a given country. We rely on the AmericasBarometer data in the years 2006-2018/9 for 18 Latin American countries. The results show that support for the president, as measured by presidential approval, covariates with respect for political institutions and support for the political system positively, meaning that these are conditional on who the president is: detractors are more prone to withdraw such respect and support. Furthermore, the results also show that this positive covariation is reinforced when presidents are stronger. These preliminary results point to the fact that not only strong presidentialism, or delegative presidents, may erode democratic institutions in Latin America, but also erode democratic attitudes, especially among opponents.

Quo Vadis Development? Plurality in political economies in Latin America and how to harness it

Pablo Garcés-Velástegui, Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales, Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador.

Recent protests in Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile, as well as tense elections in Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, and Argentina suggest strong polarization. Those instances seem to be examples of a wider phenomenon across Latin America, that can be usefully analyzed in terms of ‘development’. Being a descriptive as well as normative term, it suggests the idea of good change (Chambers 2005) and prompts action to produce it. Development, therefore, is quintessentially politics-driven and policy-oriented. The growing diversity of factions, vindications, and actors in the region underscore the plurality of development notions. This scenario defies conventional left-right analysis, demanding richer, alternative frameworks. Grid group cultural theory (CT) can be promising to that end (Garcés-Velástegui 2023). It offers an account of cultural viability based on two dimensions: grid and group, denoting the extent to which individual choice is influenced by institutions and collectives, respectively (Thompson et al 1990). Their combination produces a typology of four ideal typical, irreducible, mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive worldviews. Thus, it can make sense of the region’s development’s discursive (and its concomitant political) landscape. Gaining realism while maintaining parsimony, the four ideal typical models proposed by the approach are i) market-led development, illustrated by neo-liberalism; ii) state-led, exemplified by neo-developmentalism; iii) multiple alternatives falling under post-development, such as Sumak Kawsay and Vivir Sabroso; and, iv) a chimera. Moreover, this elucidation can contribute to the construction of development models that are legitimate as well as effective, since the approach has proven useful to tackle wicked problems and produce clumsy solutions. References: Chambers, R. (2005). Ideas for Development. Routledge. Garcés-Velástegui, P. (2023) Varieties of Development: plurality in development models and how to harness it. Journal of International Development. Thompson, M., R. Ellis, A. Wildavsky & M. Wildavsky. (1990). Cultural Theory. Oxford: Westview Press.

Caudillismos, de las independencias al momento actual. Ensayo sobre política comparada latinoamericana

Iván Mallada Álvarez, IES Astures.

La historia de los países hispanoamericanos vive desde su independencia procesos evolutivos convergentes hacia diferentes tendencias políticas que, cíclicamente, trastocan el normal funcionamiento de sus democracias. Uno de los fenómenos más singulares del ámbito hispanoamericano es la tendencia hacia el caudillismo, algo manifestado desde los inicios mismos de las independencias, conducidas precisamente por prohombres que expandieron las ideas independentistas ante la indiferencia, cuando no la oposición, de buena parte de sus coetáneos. Dicho recurso a la construcción de liderazgos sólidamente asentados sobre principios autoritarios fue asimismo frecuente en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, en determinados momentos del XX, e incluso en la actualidad. Además, si algo caracteriza estos movimientos políticos es que trascienden las ideologías pues tanto se manifiestan en el ámbito de la izquierda como en el de la derecha en ocasiones dentro de los márgenes constitucionales y, en otras ocasiones, evolucionando hacia regímenes dictatoriales. El presente ensayo analizará los puntos de encuentro, las diferencias y las especificidades del caudillismo americano a lo largo de los dos siglos de vida independiente de las repúblicas hispanas utilizando para ello la objetividad de la ciencia política y empleando no sólo fuentes bibliográficas, sino también memorias, fuentes prosopográficas y hemerográficas. De esa manera, alejados de los convencionalismos y las pasiones políticas que habitualmente alimentan este tipo de aproximación al estudio político, se pretende trazar los rasgos generales del fenómeno caudillista. Por último, se busca además inferir porqué el caudillismo no trasciende las fronteras americanas y no tiene parangón en el continente europeo con el que comparte tan estrecha relación histórica, económica, social y cultural.

The substantive content of the left-right cleavage: Central American cases

Emma Turiño González, Universidad de Salamanca and Cristian Márquez Romo, Universidad de Salamanca.

Understanding the components of the left-right dimension is key to a better understanding of different political contexts and their evolution in democratic terms. Such a task is particularly necessary in the study of regions where the "left-right" and "authoritarian-liberal" dimensions do not accurately reflect the political struggle. This is because classical liberal political positions aligned with the US or European left, mostly linked to the GAL (Green, Alternative, Liberal) trinomial of the GAL-TAN concept, are not a reality in Central American and Caribbean politics. The study examines the ideological self-identification of legislators in five Central American countries, considered as least-likely cases. This analysis utilizes specific questions from the University of Salamanca’s Survey of Latin American Elites (PELA) database. The research employs an inductive approach to investigate the lawmakers’ ideological positioning. Lindqvist’s (2023) Inequality Theory is tested across Latin America and specifically in Central America. According to Lindqvist, the best predictor of ideological self-positioning in both Europe and Latin America is the tolerance towards inequality, including gender, wealth, and sexual orientation. We find that in Central America, but not in the rest of Latin America, tolerance of homosexuality strongly predicts left-right ideology when controlling for traditional variables on interventionism. Reference: Lindqvist, J. (2023). ‘An urban myth? Government involvement in the economy and left–right politics’, International Political Science Review, 0(0).

A4 Monuments and Contested Public Spaces in Latin America. Decolonization, protests and social justice

Chairs: Florencia Quesada Avendaño, María Gutiérrez Bascón

Political uses of public space: Feminist protests in Mexico City’s historic centre

Fernando Gutiérrez, University College London.

On Friday 29 November 2019, around 5 pm, a few women gathered at the Hemiciclo a Juárez [monument], starting what seemed to be a protest. They moved from the Hemiciclo to the kiosko [bandstand], some metres behind. More women joined the crowd. A few of them took over the bandstand as a sort of stage, while the rest spread out around the circus and started singing: ‘And the fault was not mine, or where I was, or how I dressed... The rapist is you!’ The gathering at the bandstand was part of a rehearsal of the feminist protest performance called 'Un violador en tu camino' [A rapist in your path], which started in Chile and was replicated in many cities worldwide in 2019 (Martin and Shaw, 2021). Mexican feminist groups were protesting gender violence and femicides. After rehearsing for about an hour, the group marched from the Alameda to the Zócalo, where they performed the song a couple of times in front of the National Palace, the seat of the national government. By using, and in some cases damaging, historic public spaces and monuments, these demonstrations were intended to commemorate women who have suffered from violence and crime, draw attention to what seems to be an ‘unstoppable’ wave of crime against women, and demand action and solutions from the state. Scholars in Mexico City have claimed that urban regulations undermine the political functions of public space, which enforce various forms of surveillance and policing actions (Hernández Cordero, 2012; Giglia, 2013; Martínez Ramírez, 2015). In this paper, I argue that historic public spaces in Mexico City, have not lost their political functions despite the implementation of urban regeneration or conservation policies. Recent protests in the historic centre prove that public space is still a place for protests and demonstrations.

Reclaiming Silenced Histories in Urban Spaces: Esquina de la Descolonización and Grassroots Memorialization in Havana

María A. Gutiérrez Bascón, University of Helsinki.

This presentation explores the Esquina de la Descolonización in Havana, a striking example of grassroots memorialization and urban intervention that challenges official narratives and commemorates marginalized histories. Established in 2006 by a heterogeneous group of anti-racist activists and scholars, this alternative monument represents an effort to address the conspicuous absence of public memory surrounding issues of race in Cuba. Situated at the intersection of Morro & Colón streets in Old Havana, the Corner of Decolonization marks a significant site in Afro-Cuban history. Each November 27th, activists and interested individuals gather at this corner to commemorate the assassination of five abakuá brothers in 1871. These brothers died attempting to save a group of young medical students wrongfully accused and executed by the Spanish colonial government. The abakuá, an Afro-Cuban fraternal secret society formed during the 19th century when slavery was still active, and persisting up till today, has been stigmatized and misunderstood, often being erroneously linked to criminality. This annual event not only memorializes the abakuá brothers and their mutual-aid society but also serves as a platform to discuss silenced Black memory and the need to decolonize history. While the medical students are officially recognized as martyrs for Cuban independence with a prominent marble monument, the abakuá brothers' sacrifice remains unrecognized in official commemorations. This discrepancy highlights a broader issue of selective historical remembrance and the marginalization of Black contributions in Cuban history. Marked by graffiti and abakuá symbols in iron under a significant jagüey tree, Esquina de la Descolonización has become a space for alternative remembrance. It challenges who has the right to inscribe memory in the urban fabric, representing a case of monuments from below. This presentation delves into how such grassroots efforts can reshape our understanding of history and memory in urban landscapes.

A5 Global Energy Futures and local reconfigurations of the ‘just transition’ in comparative perspective

Chairs: Mattias Borg Rasmussen, Malayna Raftopoulos, John-Andrew McNeish

Contested Imaginaries of the Green Transition in Ecuador

Joanna Morley, University of Liverpool.

In the context of a surge of infrastructure investment in the Andean countries of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia (Ray et al., 2018), hydropower projects are rapidly increasing in the Andean Amazon due to rising energy demands and abundant untapped potential (Finer and Jenkins, 2012). Consequently, renewable energy projects are redefining the political landscapes and social understandings of sustainable energy development at the national and local level. In Ecuador, the characterisation of hydroelectric dams as ‘green energy’ alongside their role in socio-environmental conflicts concerning environmental protection, indigenous rights, and differing perceptions of what a buen vivir development model should be, demonstrate the tensions between the three pillars (economic, social, and environmental) of a hegemonic ‘green capitalist’ vision of sustainable development. Widespread references to buen vivir by governments and industry figures promoting renewable energy projects and the expansion of the extractive frontier, demonstrate that the concept was and remains subject to processes of strategic framing and normalisation so as to add legitimacy to such projects amidst a ‘tension of territorialities’ (Svampa, 2008; Porto Gonçalves, 2001). An analysis of the contested imaginaries of the the Coca Codo Sinclair (CCS) Hydroelectric Project and the unfolding environmental disaster (since 2020) of the regressive erosion on the Coca river in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon, highlights the experiences and political reality of environmental harm and its consequences in affected populations and territories already made vulnerable by extractive activity. It demonstrates how projects that are promoted as part of an international hegemonic narrative of clean and sustainable energy are, in the imaginaries of the affected communities and civil society groups, viewed as an extension of the extractivist model in Ecuador. This is extraction in its newest form in a continuation of the long history of genocidal exploitation of the peoples and resources of the Amazon since colonial times.

Echoes of an Ancient Sun: Contesting Energy Transition in Norway and Colombia

John-Andrew McNeish, Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

Whilst clearly contrasting contexts in terms of their political, economic, social, and geographical contexts, Colombia and Norway exhibit features that provoke consideration of a common geo-ontology. Apart from their current commitment to sustainable development and green transition, the histories of both nations have in large degree been guided by the interaction of their fossil rich territories (on land and sea) with the often-violent dynamics of colonialism and state formation. Although both countries are now moving in the direction of constructing vast new wind power projects, energy development remains largely determined by the echoes of an ancient sun. Simply put, the space and architecture of current energy development and the political and social battles they provoke correspond in large degree to the patterns of earlier non-renewable and subterranean resource extraction. This carbon geoontopower has a stratigraphy expressing competing scales and systems of vital materialism stretching across human and non-human forms of existence, and across levels of geo-politics (Povenelli 2016). In this assemblage of interests, cultural understandings and expressions of value are frequently at odds with one another. This is perhaps most strikingly visible in the militant contestations over land and concessions between indigenous communities, energy companies and related infrastructures in both countries. In this paper I suggest that recognition of this common geo-ontology has significance beyond the analytical, helping to explain the practical limitations of current practices of impact assessment and efforts to deliver on claims of a just transition.

Just Renewability: Contesting public deliberation in the energy transition

Lucrecia Wagner, IANIGLA-CONICET, Malayna Raftopoulos, Aalborg University and Mattias Borg Rasmussen, University of Copenhagen.

The energy transition is both highly place-specific and global in its scope and tactics. In this paper, we explore analytical strategies for moving beyond the case-based and methodological nationalism that has characterized much energy transition literature so far. Our point of departure is that we need studies that can both point to the specific dynamics of the local cultural ecologies as well as large-scale political economies. In order to achieve this, we compare the conditions of three different kinds of energy transitions (Denmark, Spain, Argentina), focusing on the relationship between the democratization of decision-making and the hegemonic production of collectively held ideal energy futures. We therefore suggest that an analytical strategy that draws inspiration from decolonial, feminist and Latin American Political Ecology critiques of knowledge production and circulation which also attends to the onto-epistemic erasures within public deliberation. By critically analyzing the three cases, we are therefore interested in thinking about how representation as both the substance of justice and a process to obtain justice can be thought of as a ‘border dialogue’ where issues of justice are not expressed exclusively in the terms of dominant society. While ‘the colonial relation’ structures the encounters that make up the public politics of the energy transition, the border dialogues might open up spaces where difference is engaged without a reenactment of social hierarchies.

Reconfigured Rural Relations in the Green Transition

Inge-Merete Hougaard, University of Copenhagen.

Climate change mitigation has intensified the struggle for land. Large areas are envisioned for reforestation, carbon dioxide removal and renewable energy projects, and new and old investors see business opportunities in land acquisitions. Increased land concentration affects access and ownership for local populations, and green transition interventions imply unequal spatial effects.

In a new research project, I am interested in exploring how the spatial impacts of the green transition are experienced differently by rural populations in Colombia and Denmark, and how rural relations – given different historical development and agrarian trajectories – are reconfigured in the context of increased land concentration. Situated in the field of political ecology of green transition, the project draws on literature on green grabbing, just transition, state-making and rural subjectivities. Based on previous research on rural relations and the formation of agro-industrial subjectivities in Colombia, and on-going research on landscape change and co-creation in the context of the green transition in Denmark, I hypothesise that the (re)concentration of land impacts state-citizen relations and (opportunities for) engagement in climate mitigation interventions in two different ways. Whereas a decades-long history of conflict and land concentration in Colombia has yielded rural elites experience with local opposition and thus enabled them to develop strategies for addressing this, including personal patron-client relations and CSR initiatives, the governance model in Denmark imply fixed procedures of public meetings and hearing processes that may be experienced as tick-box exercises. How can studying the two cases together enable a rethinking of social and environmental justice in context of the green transition? And how can it bring new insights for the study of rural relations and reconfigured subjectivities in the context of increased land concentration?

A6 Filosofías de la naturaleza, cosmogonías indígenas y autonomías locales

Chair: Jan Gustafsson

Misticismo y espiritualidad del dominio territorial en los pueblos indígenas, comunidades tribales y pueblos originarios

Tulio Alberto Álvarez-Ramos, Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Venezuela.

La presentación desarrollará la temática del dominio territorial de los pueblos indígenas, comunidades tribales y pueblos originarios desde la perspectiva de una dogmática de derechos humanos que integre el respeto de sus instituciones jurídicas y las tradicionales formas de posesión de la tierra, además del uso y aprovechamiento sostenible de los recursos naturales que en ellas se encuentran. En el contexto de las jornadas convocadas, se realizaría un análisis comparativo entre la problemática que se presenta en América Latina y la situación de Groenlandia, específicamente en lo referente al estatus jurídico de las tierras tradicionalmente ocupadas por los pueblos de ese territorio. La reflexión incluiría la revisión del nomos de los pueblos indígenas, comunidades tribales y pueblos originarios para destacar el punto de encuentro entre la filosofía de la naturaleza, la filosofía moral y la filosofía del derecho, en la especificidad de una dogmática de derechos humanos. Se destacaría así la dimensión ética de las plurales kosmogonías de las comunidades autóctonas y el valor libertad como fundante y fin último de sus instituciones y tradiciones. El Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos ha definido en forma categorica que los pueblos indígenas tienen derecho a vivir en armonía con la naturaleza y a un ambiente sano, seguro y sustentable, condiciones esenciales para el pleno goce del derecho a la vida, a su espiritualidad, cosmovisión y al bienestar colectivo. De manera que la garantía a la vigencia efectiva de estos derechos supone una profunda reflexión sobre el sistema de valores que sustenta la forma de vida de estas comunidades, especialmente cuando estos valores se contextualizan en sus ámbitos territoriales. Adquiere así mayor entidad el amplio reconocimiento, en el derecho internacional, sobre la relación interdependiente entre la protección al medio ambiente, el desarrollo sostenible y los derechos humanos.

Ecosemiótica y pensamiento andino – ¿perspectivas para repensar las utopías?

Jan Gustafsson, Universidad de Copenhague.

La utopía –en cuanto visión abierta hacia el futuro y sus posibilidades– aunque aparentemente un resquicio del pasado siglo tiene más relevancia que nunca para pensar y repensar el presente y el futuro. Sin embargo, es esencial que el pensamiento utópico que, en su versión moderna, tenía como objeto el mundo humano social y material y no el ambiental, se abra a horizontes que incluyan las dimensiones extrahumanas del mundo, ya que, para crear un futuro, uno de los problemas centrales a resolver es la relación entre lo que percibimos como “humano/cultural” y lo percibido como “naturaleza”. A este fin, se discutirán brevemente dos aportes –aparentemente muy disímiles– que rompen el molde tradicional de (gran parte del) pensamiento occidental en cuanto la percepción del mundo “humano-cultural” y “natural” como dos entidades diferenciadas y jerarquizadas. Uno será llamado aquí, inexactamente, “pensamiento andino” o “ecosofía” (Esterman 2013) y el otro es ecosemiótica (Maran 2020). Pese a la aparente inconmensurabilidad entre ambas corrientes, se dan coincidencias interesantes y productivas. La utopía, por otra parte, será discutida y definida a partir de las lecturas que hacen Abensour (2009) y Levinas (1994) de Bloch. Esta discusión abrirá la ponencia que luego pasará a introducir y concretar su perspectiva sobre “pensamiento andino” y ecosemiótica para, finalmente, comparar estas perspectivas y evaluar su potencial como aportes al pensamiento utópico. Referencias: Abensour, Miguel (2009): Utopía: ¿Futuro y/o Alteridad? Revista Internacional de Filosofía, nº 46, 2009, 15-32. Estermann, Josef (2013): Ecosofía andina: un paradigma alternativo de convivencia cósmica y de Vivir Bien. FAIA. VOL. II. Número IX-X. Levinas, Emmanuel (1994): Diós, la muerte y el tiempo. Madrid: Cátedra. Maran, Timo (2020): Ecosemiotics. The Study of Signs in Changing Ecologies. Cambridge University Press.

El diálogo ecocéntrico entre la prosa breve hispánica y nórdica del siglo XXI

Anne Karine Kleveland, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

En el siglo XXI vemos cómo cada vez más textos literarios se alejan de un enfoque antropocéntrico para acercarse a uno ecocéntrico. Tanto en la literatura hispánica como en la nórdica encontramos textos breves que transmiten un deseo de redefinir nuestra relación con los otros seres con los que compartimos la tierra. En esta comunicación se presentan algunos ejemplos de prosa breve de escritores latinoamericanos y nórdicos del periodo 2010 a 2023, para mostrar cómo se establece un diálogo transatlántico donde se percibe esta nueva visión. Partiendo de la ecofilosofía y de la ética de fellow creatures, se explora cómo los autores de hoy matizan de diferentes maneras las voces, las emociones y los papeles de la diversidad de especies en sus representaciones literarias. De esta manera los ejemplos literarios facilitan la discusión de lo humano como una especie en coexistencia con otras especies, y nos permiten imaginar una identidad más profunda en conexión con otros seres vivos. Asimismo, abren para discutir de qué manera la literatura puede mostrar camino hacia una coexistencia más sostenible y respetuosa entre los seres de nuestro planeta.

A7 Fleeing from Latin America to Northern Europe, 1945-1990

Chairs: Mónika Szente-Varga, András Lénárt, Fernando Camacho Padilla

From Bogota to Oslo: History of a Journey of Escape

Mónika Szente-Varga, Ludovika University of Public Service.

Nazly Lozano Eljure, the first Afro-Colombian woman to sit in the Colombian Congress, Deputy Minister of Justice between 1982 and 1986, was appointed ambassador to Norway, with concurrent accreditation to Sweden, in summer 1986. Other than diplomatic ties, Colombia in fact had scarce contacts with these two countries and did not even have an embassy building. What made then the Colombian government send abroad one of its key officials? Why to Norway? What were the principal reasons, and what could have been the objectives? How far the latter could be achieved, taking as a watershed the assassination attempt against former Minister of Justice Enrique Parejo González, ambassador of Colombia to Hungary, in January 1987? Answers will be sought in the general coordinates provided by both internal affairs in Colombia, the functioning of transnational criminal organizations as well as Cold War dynamics that will allow us to combine micro and macro level histories.

The Refugees of the Black Pimpernel – Facts and Fiction about Harald Edelstam’s Mission

András Lénárt, University of Szeged.

Swedish ambassador to Chile, Harald Edelstam is a real hero in both Sweden and Chile. After Augusto Pinochet’s coup d'état in 1973, Edelstam, who had already saved hundreds of lives during the Second World War, became a hero again: he helped more than 1,300 people to escape the Chilean dictatorship through the Swedish embassy. They managed to flee to Europe, especially to Northern Europe. It was also thanks to him that film footage of the coup was sent to Northern Europe and from there to other countries on the continent, so that the world could see what was happening in the South American country. It was therefore natural that Edelstam’s life should also be portrayed on film: the Swedish film The Black Pimpernel, directed by Ulf Hulzberg, was released in 2007. The aim of my presentation is to show how the filmic representation in this case served the historical memory of the escape, and how Edelstam’s mission in helping refugees contributed to the awareness of the events in Chile.

Political Organization of Chilean Exiles in Sweden (1973-1990)

Fernando Camacho Padilla, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

During the Military Regime of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), Sweden hosted one of the largest Chilean communities in the World. Besides the great distance and the few historical contacts between Sweden and Chile, the massive arrival of Chileans was strongly related to the humanitarian values of Prime Minister Olof Palme and the Swedish Ambassador to Chile, Harald Edelstam, together with the great commitment of the Swedish left. Most of the refuges were militants of different political parties and organizations of Chile, and once in Sweden, they soon organized their struggle for the restoration of democracy and the respect of the Human Rights of their homeland. This presentation will focus on the political organization of the Chilean exiles in Sweden and will analyze their strategies and solidarity campaigns.

A8 Diplomacies Otherwise in Latin America

Chairs: Hanna Laako, Edith Kauffer

Conservation diplomacy in the Maya Forest and the underpinnings of diplomacies otherwise

Hanna Laako, University of Eastern Finland.

Diplomacy refers to a system or process between political actors engaged in private and public communication to pursue their objectives in a peaceful manner (McGlinchey 2017). Currently, the concept has expanded to include other actors beyond nation-states (e.g. journal Diplomatica). Hence, this paper explores diplomacies otherwise entailing non-state actors. The paper builds on critical borderlands literature (e.g. Prado 2012) that have addressed borderlands as places of encounter and of go-betweens. The non-state actors are active interlocutors that shape international relations in borderlands. The paper examines the case of conservation diplomacy in the Maya Forest. Conservation diplomacy was coined by Dorsey (2009) to describe how conservationists helped to overcome nationalistic competition between countries by building environmental interstate relations based on wildlife treaties. These later contributed to the much broader wave of environmental diplomacy, understood as the international system for environmental decision-making responding to climate crisis and other challenges in the Anthropocene. Conservation diplomacy taps into transboundary conservation in the Maya Forest, which is located in the borderlands of Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. The paper discusses various challenges and achievements related to conservation diplomacy and diplomacies otherwise in the Maya Forest, among others, those related to Indigenous peoples. References: Dorsey, K. 2009. The Dawn of Conservation Diplomacy: The U.S.-Canadian Wildlife Protection Treaties in the Progressive Era. University of Washington Press; McGlinchey, M. Ed. 2017. International Relations. E-International Relations Publishing; Prado 2012. The Fringes of Empires: Recent Scholarship on Colonial Frontiers and Borderlands in Latin America. History Compass 10, 318-333.

From water diplomacy to sand diplomacy: Insights from the Usumacinta river basin (Mexico-Guatemala)

Edith Kauffer, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social CIESAS-Sureste, México.

Sand mining is growing all over the world to face an increasing demand from the construction sector and industries. The situation of sand extraction in rivers in Latin America is little studied at national scale and scholarship focusing on transboundary issues is even scarcer regarding the second most used natural resource considered by the United Nations Environmental Programme (Vander Velpen et al, 2022) as ungoverned in its forms of mining, management and international trade. Recent scholarship has proposed water diplomacy or hydrodiplomacy as an inclusive series of tools to foster transboundary cooperation but also to contribute to peace building and security. Consequently, today water diplomacy tends to go beyond a sole state-centric perspective, including diverse stakeholders. Multi track diplomacy as well as new scales and actors are part of a critical perspective of water diplomacy that advocates for local stakeholders’, water communities’ and riparian’s participation. This perspective investigates local narratives, interests, by widening the analysis to new realities. Sand and gravels are transported sediments by the rivers that also cross borders when they flow along transboundary waters. In some rare cases, sediments are considered as relevant and included in transboundary water cooperation such as the Drin river in the Balkans. Fieldwork in the Usumacinta river basin, Mexico’s and Central America’s highest flowing river and its numerous transboundary tributaries has raised the necessity of making sediments visible contemplating local stakeholders, riparian and water communities’ interests and extraction practices. Considering transboundary current issues related to the moving condition of river sediments in rivers and watersheds, the paper advocates for a sand river governance that should be articulated with a critical sand diplomacy. Reference: Vander Velpen, A., et al (2022). Sand and sustainability: 10 strategic recommendations to avert a crisis, UNEP: Geneva.

La diplomacia vista desde la frontera. Una perspectiva centroamericana

Lucile Medina, Professor of geography, University Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, France.

La propuesta consiste en repensar las relaciones internacionales en América Latina desde un ángulo diferente al habitualmente adoptado, examinando lo que ocurre en las fronteras que articulan los territorios nacionales. El objetivo es considerar las fronteras como lugares de encuentro intermediación, y proponer tanto un cambio de escala como un descentramiento de las perspectivas tradicionales estado-céntricas (Kolossov, 2005). Examinaremos varios ejemplos de movilización de los actores locales que surgen en los territorios de fronteras y que pretenden rebasar los marcos nacionales, en una región en la que las fronteras han sido durante mucho tiempo, y a menudo siguen siendo, objeto de conflictos interestatales. Nos referiremos a varios casos de fronteras en Centroamérica, enfocándose hacia las asociaciones transfronterizas surgidas de la sociedad civil o de municipios que se conforman con el objetivo de modificar la lógica de exclusión (atraso y abandono por los Estados centrales) hacia una lógica de inclusión. El objetivo es poner de relieve las experiencias innovadoras que nos dan de ver esas cooperaciones, pero también las numerosas limitaciones a las que se enfrentan. La reflexión propuesta aquí es el fruto de una serie de estudios de campo en diferentes zonas de fronteras de Centroamérica, llevados a cabo durante 25 años (Medina, 2015), así como de una revisión de la literatura sobre el tema de la paradiplomacia (Zeraoui, 2016) y de las cooperaciones transfronterizas (Altmann Borbón y Beirute Brealey, 2011). Referencias: Altmann Borbón J., Beirute Brealey T. (ed.) (2011), América Latina y el Caribe: cooperación transfronteriza, Teseo: CAF: FLACSO, Buenos Aires. Kolossov V. (2005), Border Studies: Changing Perspectives and Theoretical Approaches, Geopolitics, vol. 10, n°4, 606-632. Medina L. (2015). « La movilización de los actores locales en los territorios de fronteras. Una perspectiva transfronteriza desde Centroamérica », Revista de Estudos e Pesquisas sobre as Américas (Brasilia), vol.9 n°3, 24 p. Zeraoui, Z. (2016). Para entender la paradiplomacia. Desafíos, 28(1), 15‑34e.

A9 Trauma, Transitional Justice and Reconciliation in Colombia

Chairs: Julie Wetterslev, Lizethe Alvarez Söderlind

When the birds stopped singing – Trauma, justice and reconciliation in Colombia

Julie Wetterslev, European University Institute.

In 2016, the Peace Agreement between the Colombian government and the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) seemingly brought a halt to one of the longest-standing civil wars in the world. After a conflict that had caused more than 600.000 deaths and displaced more than 7 million people, Colombians now faced the huge task of coming to terms with their past, ensure restoration and reparation for the victims of the conflict and find ways to guarantee that grave crimes will not be repeated. In a society that had become used to forced disappearances, massacres, and abductions, it was now said that reconciliation and healing would be the only way to avoid repeating the past. The Peace Agreement prescribed the creation of a Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, and a Special Jurisdiction for Peace. Over the next years, the Truth Commission would conduct more than 30.000 interviews with victims and elaborate a report about the underlying causes for and responsibilities in the armed conflict. Meanwhile, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace would examine 7 grave cases of violations to place and sanction responsibilities and provide amnesties for those deemed less responsible in exchange for their truths. At the same time, social and political movements in Colombia organised huge protests to demand social justice as a necessary precondition for peace, and creative and ceremonial forms of exposing and dealing with historical and present trauma were often visible in the protests. This paper examines how Colombian society has strived to enhance the capacity and possibility for healing individual and collective trauma in different spheres. Engaging with examples from the juridical and institutional sphere, as well as from the artistic and activist realm, the paper will adopt a critical perspective on the discourses employed and the actions realized – bearing in mind the need to adopt a longue durée perspective rather than delimit the armed conflict to the last six decades.

Corporate accountability and transitional justice in Colombia

Line Jespersgaard Jakobsen, Roskilde University.

In Colombia, being in the forefront of a broader global tendency, there is an increased focus on corporate actors as possibly complicit during armed conflict. Holding such actors accountable in dealing with past violence and atrocities represents a possible innovation to the standard setup of Transitional Justice (TJ). TJ has traditionally been a state-centric branch of international hard law combined with the soft law human rights system, again and again overlooking economic and non-human dimensions. Colombia reflects a case of a recent and ongoing TJ process, in which there is strong evidence that especially paramilitaries have been financed by companies during the armed conflict. The initial interest in holding ‘third parties’ accountable through the special TJ jurisdiction in Colombia reflects one of the world’s first official efforts to include corporate complicity in a systematic fashion in TJ. While ‘third parties’ were later written out as mandatory subjects of the TJ mandate, the initial discussions have left civil society in a stronger position to insist on the inclusion of third parties as subjects of TJ. Colombia has become the worlds’ contemporary laboratory for transitional justice (IFIT 2022; JEP 2021), and its experiments are often praised by international actors. Despite obstacles and challenges, Colombia’s TJ system represents a comprehensive version of TJ. If any country in the world would experiment with incorporating corporate accountability, which has historically been placed in the margins of TJ, into the TJ toolbox, Colombia could be the one. Based on such a ‘most likely case’ approach, the article argues that innovating the TJ standard and expanding it to include ‘new’ actors is not a straight-forward process and shows how TJ is deeply embedded in elite politics and mainstream thinking on justice.

The territory as victim in the Special Jurisdiction for Peace in Colombia

Nina Bries Silva, European University Institute.

“Nuestro territorio ancestral y sagrado ha sufrido violaciones, alteraciones, mutilaciones, ocupaciones y daños producto del conflicto armado interno” (“Our ancestral and sacred territory has suffered violations, alterations, mutilations, occupations and damage because of the internal armed conflict”). This is how the Colombian indigenous Nasa community described the effects of the armed conflict on their territory, the Cxhab Wala Kile, before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) illustrating that for them the experience of war is not limited to the narratives of human beings. In 2020, the JEP recognised the ‘gran territorio Nasa de la Cxhab Wala Kile’ as a victim of the armed conflict, with its own right to reparation. This marks the first time in transitional justice that a more than human element is granted a victim status and as such offers the opportunity to rethink the concept of harm and reparation. Based on six months fieldwork conducted with the Nasa indigenous people in Colombia, this paper seeks to explore their understanding of the harms to the territory and their conceptions of reparation. It investigates to what extend the Nasa legal system can inform the reparation framework and help to define the ‘sanciones proprias’ of the JEP.

Consecuencias psicosomáticas del conflicto colombiano en los cuerpos de las mujeres

Lizethe Alvarez Echeverry Söderlind, Copenhagen University.

El 28 de junio de 2022, la Comisión de la Verdad presentó su Informe final: ‘Hay futuro si hay verdad’. Este fue el resultado de un trabajo investigativo y de escuchar a las víctimas del conflicto armado colombiano. La presente ponencia tiene como objetivo presentar hallazgos de violaciones a los Derechos Humanos y al Derecho Internacional Humanitario que se perpetuaron sobre las mujeres* (*= mujeres en su interseccionalidad y su diversidad). Así pues, la ponencia adquiere importancia por dar nombre a traumas y somatizaciones que los cuerpos de las mujeres* colombianas recibieron. El marco de la investigación es empírico donde interesa primordialmente las consecuencias prácticas de la observación, la recolección de datos y la realidad experimentada en los cuerpos durante y después del conflicto. En ese sentido, el resultado obtenido es la falta de una asistencia psicosocial y cuidado de la salud mental, que para esta ponencia es relevante dentro del proceso de reparación a las víctimas. Por último, esta investigación me lleva a la conclusión de que los cuerpos y las vidas de las mujeres* fueron y son utilizados por todos los actores del conflicto armado como objetos para el control territorial, así mismo, esto denota una cultura patriarcal que libra la guerra en los cuerpos femeninos, convirtiéndolos en trofeo, lo que nos recuerda las reflexiones de Cynthia Holden Enloe sobre la importancia de entender el funcionamiento del género en nuestras sociedades para poder comprender cómo funciona el poder en las mismas.

El papel sanador del arte

Margarita Sofía de la Hoz Terán

El papel sanador del arte es una de las aristas dentro de las posibilidades que este generosamente no da.. Más allá de la belleza o no que pueda aportar, este abre la posibilidad de expresar los vacíos, dolores y angustias que en el caso colombiano el conflicto social, político y armado colombiano ha traído sobre las víctimas y sobrevivientes obligados tantas veces a callar. Al romper el silencio a través de expresiones tan diversas como la escritura, el teatro, la música, el performance y las producciones audiovisuales se abre la posibilidad de narrar, denunciar, re-encontrarse, ser escuchados y escuchar. Todos estos se convierten para las víctimas en oportunidades de justicia, de búsqueda de verdad, de negarse a olvidar sus seres queridos, sus afectos y añoranzas; pero también de sanidad. Esta cual ocurre en la medida en que toman para sí la posibilidad de sentir y desde la emocionalidad crear. El arte juega entonces en estos casos el papel de elemento sanador, reconciliador, canal de denuncia y de acercamiento con la sociedad. Cómo ejemplo de esto tenemos trabajos como Cartas de Amor en Tiempos del Conflicto, Margarita y el agua, Puños de Memoria o Memoria en Serie -porque olvidar no se puede.