Burocracias humanitarias en Colombia: conocimiento técnico y disputas políticas en la implementación de la Ley de Víctimas y Restitución de Tierras

Through an ethnographic study of the policy of reparation to victims in Colombia, this article examines the processes of the production of expert knowledge along different scales and disputes of humanitarian bureaucracies in Colombia. These emerge from the institutional deployment of development and...

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Main Author: Juan Pablo Vera Lugo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad de los Andes 2022-07-01
Series:Revista de Estudios Sociales
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/doi/full/10.7440/res81.2022.02
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author Juan Pablo Vera Lugo
author_facet Juan Pablo Vera Lugo
author_sort Juan Pablo Vera Lugo
collection DOAJ
description Through an ethnographic study of the policy of reparation to victims in Colombia, this article examines the processes of the production of expert knowledge along different scales and disputes of humanitarian bureaucracies in Colombia. These emerge from the institutional deployment of development and peacebuilding paradigms, at least since 1982, with the creation of the National Rehabilitation Plan (PNR), the Social Solidarity Network (RSS) in 1994, the Presidential Agency for Social Action and International Cooperation in 2002, and the Department of Social Prosperity (DPS) in 2011. With the subjugation of some paramilitary groups in 2006 (Justice and Peace Law), the Victims and Land Restitution Law in 2011, and the peace agreements with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People’s Army (FARC-EP) guerrillas in 2016, transitional institutions associated with truth, justice, and reparation proliferated, and with them, specific bureaucracies and expertise. Thus, the article specifically examines the technical and political tensions between different professional and ideological configurations associated with the implementation of reparations policy and how these disputes are essential to understanding the moral and ideological dimensions of humanitarianism and development in Colombia. It also studies the role of cooperation agencies in inter-institutional strengthening as a specific dimension of the formation of the Colombian State. These articulations configure a moral economy of humanitarianism characterized by institutional experimentalism and the formulation of social projects, expectations, plans, and ideas that never reach the status of having been realized. This strips such policies of any transformative or emancipatory potential. Thus, from an ethnographic perspective, the article provides an account of the techno-political tensions of humanitarian bureaucracies at the middle scales of regional, national, and global institutional structures.
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spelling doaj.art-21ba4d250aed4be398e5ee221871956a2022-12-22T03:39:48ZengUniversidad de los AndesRevista de Estudios Sociales0123-885X1900-51802022-07-0181213710.7440/res81.2022.02Burocracias humanitarias en Colombia: conocimiento técnico y disputas políticas en la implementación de la Ley de Víctimas y Restitución de TierrasJuan Pablo Vera Lugo0Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, ColombiaThrough an ethnographic study of the policy of reparation to victims in Colombia, this article examines the processes of the production of expert knowledge along different scales and disputes of humanitarian bureaucracies in Colombia. These emerge from the institutional deployment of development and peacebuilding paradigms, at least since 1982, with the creation of the National Rehabilitation Plan (PNR), the Social Solidarity Network (RSS) in 1994, the Presidential Agency for Social Action and International Cooperation in 2002, and the Department of Social Prosperity (DPS) in 2011. With the subjugation of some paramilitary groups in 2006 (Justice and Peace Law), the Victims and Land Restitution Law in 2011, and the peace agreements with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People’s Army (FARC-EP) guerrillas in 2016, transitional institutions associated with truth, justice, and reparation proliferated, and with them, specific bureaucracies and expertise. Thus, the article specifically examines the technical and political tensions between different professional and ideological configurations associated with the implementation of reparations policy and how these disputes are essential to understanding the moral and ideological dimensions of humanitarianism and development in Colombia. It also studies the role of cooperation agencies in inter-institutional strengthening as a specific dimension of the formation of the Colombian State. These articulations configure a moral economy of humanitarianism characterized by institutional experimentalism and the formulation of social projects, expectations, plans, and ideas that never reach the status of having been realized. This strips such policies of any transformative or emancipatory potential. Thus, from an ethnographic perspective, the article provides an account of the techno-political tensions of humanitarian bureaucracies at the middle scales of regional, national, and global institutional structures.https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/doi/full/10.7440/res81.2022.02bureaucracycollective redressexpert knowledgehumanitarianismmoral economypublic policies
spellingShingle Juan Pablo Vera Lugo
Burocracias humanitarias en Colombia: conocimiento técnico y disputas políticas en la implementación de la Ley de Víctimas y Restitución de Tierras
Revista de Estudios Sociales
bureaucracy
collective redress
expert knowledge
humanitarianism
moral economy
public policies
title Burocracias humanitarias en Colombia: conocimiento técnico y disputas políticas en la implementación de la Ley de Víctimas y Restitución de Tierras
title_full Burocracias humanitarias en Colombia: conocimiento técnico y disputas políticas en la implementación de la Ley de Víctimas y Restitución de Tierras
title_fullStr Burocracias humanitarias en Colombia: conocimiento técnico y disputas políticas en la implementación de la Ley de Víctimas y Restitución de Tierras
title_full_unstemmed Burocracias humanitarias en Colombia: conocimiento técnico y disputas políticas en la implementación de la Ley de Víctimas y Restitución de Tierras
title_short Burocracias humanitarias en Colombia: conocimiento técnico y disputas políticas en la implementación de la Ley de Víctimas y Restitución de Tierras
title_sort burocracias humanitarias en colombia conocimiento tecnico y disputas politicas en la implementacion de la ley de victimas y restitucion de tierras
topic bureaucracy
collective redress
expert knowledge
humanitarianism
moral economy
public policies
url https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/doi/full/10.7440/res81.2022.02
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