Cited by 8Conflict, Peace, and Violence in ColombiaAfro-Latin American StudiesExtractivism and Socioeconomic Issues

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 6 of the 6 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 2 of the 32 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Déplacement, développement et modernité en Colombie du Pacifique

Open access
Escobar, Arturo·2003·Revue Internationale Des Sciences Sociales

Abstract

Résumé La présente étude se penche sur l’expérience des Afro-Colombiens déplacés, en particulier sur leur expulsion massive hors de leurs communautés d’origine du Pacifique depuis la fin des années 1990. Cette région a connu des changements sans précédent du fait de plusieurs processus liés entre eux : l’accélération du développement et de l’extraction des ressources naturelles après 1980, l’éveil de mouvements sociaux importants après que la Constitution nationale de 1991 a accordé aux minorités ethniques des droits culturels et territoriaux, et l’extension du conflit armé avec le régime de terreur et de déplacements qui l’accompagne. La thèse de l’auteur est que l’on ne peut expliquer ce qui se passe en Colombie du Pacifique que si l’on procède à un examen critique du développement et de la modernité en tant que processus qui, fondamentalement, créent des déplacements. Comme il apparaît ici, l’écart entre les facteurs de déplacement propres à la modernité et les mécanismes censés y remédier ne fait qu’augmenter. D’où la nécessité de politiques nouvelles qui s’appuient sur la capacité des communautés locales à résister sur place et à reconstruire des modernités différentes qui leur soient propres. La présente étude analyse le modèle de prévention des déplacements mis en place par des organisations locales du mouvement noir.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

Escobar argues that forced displacement in Colombia's Pacific region is not an aberration of development but an integral expression of Eurocentric modernity and its post-1945 form, development — both being spatio-cultural projects requiring the ongoing conquest and cultural submission of territories and populations. The paper uses the Afro-Colombian and indigenous movements of the Pacific as a case to show how displaced communities are proposing alternative, place-based conceptions of return and "different modernities."

Key findings

  • Colombia's Pacific region (900 km long, 50–180 km wide) has nearly 1 million inhabitants, 90% Afro-Colombian, with 50,000 belonging to indigenous groups (Emberas and Wounans the largest); it is the country's poorest region by conventional indicators yet one of the world's most biodiverse.
  • Displacement escalated sharply after 1996: 181,000 (1996), 257,000 (1997), 308,200 (1998), 288,000 (1999), 317,000 (2000); an estimated 2,200,000 people displaced since 1985. In the first three months of 2001 alone, 44,500 were displaced; the daily average rose from 352 in 2000 to 495 in the first quarter of 2001.
  • The UN Thematic Group on Displacement reported that in 2000, 57–63% of recent displacement was attributable to paramilitary groups (AUC), 12–13% to guerrillas, the rest mainly to unknown groups and state forces. An estimated 38% of displaced persons belong to ethnic minorities, with an 80% increase in the first quarter of 2001 relative to 2000.
  • Black organizations attribute displacement to macro-development projects (e.g., an interoceanic canal project; oil palm expansion of more than 20,000 hectares in the Tumaco region), the armed conflict itself, natural resource wealth (gold, timber, tourism), and illicit crops — displacement being selective and planned rather than random, concentrated in areas earmarked for macro-development.

Methods

  • Ethnographic fieldwork in the Colombian Pacific since 1993, combined with interviews with PCN leaders Carlos Rosero and Libia Grueso (Bogotá, October 2001) and documents provided by AFRODES; the paper also draws on the Sebastião Salgado *Exodos* exhibition catalogue.
  • Quantitative displacement figures are compiled from secondary sources: CODHES, RSS (Red de Solidaridad Social), ILSA, the UN Thematic Group (GTD), and Equipo Nizkor.
  • Theoretical analysis frames the case through modernity/coloniality literature (Mignolo, Quijano, Dussel), Polanyi, Giddens, Virilio, Casey, and Arce and Long's concept of "counter-work" / counter-tendencies to development.

Limitations

  • The paper states there is still no reliable census of ethnic minorities within displaced populations, so their proportion is inferred from overall distribution; the Afro-Colombian share of the national population is given as a wide range (10–26% depending on criteria).
  • The author notes that the triple classification of distribution conflicts (economic, ecological, cultural) can only be addressed "in passing" here.
  • Evident from the text: the displacement statistics come from multiple NGO, state, and UN sources with differing methodologies, and the causal attribution of displacement to specific armed actors rests on reports rather than the author's own measurement.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3917/riss.175.0171

Cites

6 of 6 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

50 Own interpretation · 17 Sources not found · 11 No basis given · 5 Not checked yet · 2 Partly supported · 1 Own method · 1 Own result · accuracy not yet measured

Verify all 1 references — free account

Show all 24 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 49
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 35
63 of 63
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Les projets de développement et la modernité capitaliste vont à coup sûr se poursuivre.

    “Mais les projets de développement et la modernité capitaliste vont à coup sûr se poursuivre.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Toutes les principales formes de déplacement se situent dans la période historique et la configuration culturelle de la modernité capitaliste.

    “Dans la mesure où elles se situent toutes dans la période historique et la configuration culturelle connues sous le nom de « modernité capitaliste »”
2 of 2

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

Show all 6 references

Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. Arce, A. ; Long, N. (dir. publ.) 2000. Anthropology, Development and Modernities, Londres, Routledge.
  2. Casey, E. 1997. The Fate of Place, Berkeley, ca, University of California Press.
  3. Dussel, E. 1996. The Underside of Modernity, Atlantic Highlands, nj, Humanities Press.
  4. Giddens, A. 1990. The Consequences of Modernity, Stanford CA, Stanford University Press, [trad. fr. Les conséquences de la modernité, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1994].
  5. Mignolo, W. 1999. Local Histories, Global Designs, Princeton, nj, Princeton University Press.
  6. Rojas, C. 2002. Civilisation and Violence, Minneapolis, mn, University of Minnesota Press.

Cited by

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Metadata

Authors
Escobar, A.
Affiliations
Cornell University (US)
Corresponding author
Escobar, Arturo
Venue
Revue Internationale Des Sciences Sociales
Publisher
CAIRN
Published
2003-03-01
Volume
n° 175
Issue
1
Pages
171-182
ISSN
0304-3037 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2010187757
Cited by
5
References
6
Citations by year
2022: 2 · 2020: 1
FWCI
0.00
Type
journal article
Language
fr
Open access
Locations
  • Revue internationale des sciences sociales (publishedVersion)
  • Cairn.info (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Conflict, Peace, and Violence in Colombia
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Afro-Latin American Studies
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Extractivism and Socioeconomic Issues
Keywords
forced displacement, Afro-Colombians, Pacific Colombia, displacement prevention, Black movement, ethnic minorities, territorial rights, resource extraction, armed conflict, social movements, local resistance, alternative modernity, Colombian Constitution of 1991

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