Cristina Rojas
Carleton University, Department of Political Science, Faculty Member
- Cristina Rojas is a professor in the Department of Political Science and the Institute of Political Economy at Carlet... moreCristina Rojas is a professor in the Department of Political Science and the Institute of Political Economy at Carleton University. Her academic research has concentrated on the areas of critical development theory, social policy, citizenship and indigenous studies, focusing primarily on Latin America. She has inquired about the relation between global regimes of representation like ‘civilization’ and ‘development’, the rise of racial and gendered hierarchies and coloniality. Presently she is doing research on the contribution of Indigenous women to the decolonization and depatriarchalization of Bolivia (2005-2014). She is the current President of the Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies.edit
This book looks at how citizenship has been imagined and transformed in Latin America through the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries from different disciplinary perspectives including anthropology, history, urban planning,... more
This book looks at how citizenship has been imagined and transformed in Latin America through the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries from different disciplinary perspectives including anthropology, history, urban planning, geography and political studies. It looks beyond citizenship as a formal legal status to explore how ideas about citizenship have shaped political and historical landscapes in different ways through the region. It shows how conceptions of citizenship are intertwined with understandings of natural spaces and environments, how indigenous politics are 'de-colonizing' western liberal conceptions of citizenship, and how citizenship is being transformed through local level politics and projects for development. In addition to showcasing some of the novel, emerging forms of citizenship in the region, the book also traces the ways in which historical narratives of citizenship and national belonging persist within present day politics. Collectively, the chapters show that citizenship remains an important entry point for understanding politics, projects of reform, and struggles for transformation in Latin America. This book was published as a special issue of Citizenship Studies.
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This book analyzes the first stage of the conflict in Colombia, the twenty-year search for a negotiated settlement which concluded in 2002 with the collapse of peace negotiations, and the transition that took place in 2002 to a new... more
This book analyzes the first stage of the conflict in Colombia, the twenty-year search for a negotiated settlement which concluded in 2002 with the collapse of peace negotiations, and the transition that took place in 2002 to a new approach to peacemaking under the Uribe administration. Contributors examine the local, regional and international dynamics of the conflict, focusing on the effect of US foreign policy on Colombia and neighboring countries. Included also is discussion of the Colombian drug trade and its impact on attempts for peace and the country's economy; the evolution of Pastrana's 'Plan Colombia'; internal conflict; and the effects of indigenous movements on the current conflict.
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Este primer volumen de la obra fue concebido en dos partes: en la primera se abordan los principales debates teóricos actuales y se incluyen colaboraciones cuya intención es problematizar desde sus aspectos metodológicos y conceptuales... more
Este primer volumen de la obra fue concebido en dos partes: en la primera se abordan los principales debates teóricos actuales y se incluyen colaboraciones cuya intención es problematizar desde sus aspectos metodológicos y conceptuales algunos de los temas más importantes involucrados en la comprensión y el estudio de dos sistemas políticos y sociales tan complejos como los de Estados Unidos y Canadá. Por supuesto, esta tarea se emprende desde la perspectiva de las ciencias sociales latinoamericanas. La segunda sección de este volumen se concentra en el análisis de las transformaciones que ha experimentado la política exterior de Estados Unidos, de cara al fin de siglo y a las nuevas circunstancias internacionales.
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Este libro es el resultado del coloquio «Teorías de la cultura y estudios de comunicación en América Latina», realizado en Bogotá, en julio de 1997, en el marco del Programa Internacional Interdisciplinario de Estudios Culturales sobre... more
Este libro es el resultado del coloquio «Teorías de la cultura y estudios de comunicación en América Latina», realizado en Bogotá, en julio de 1997, en el marco del Programa Internacional Interdisciplinario de Estudios Culturales sobre América Latina. / Contenido. Preliminares. Capítulo 1 - De la legibilidad del mundo a su emergencial, Una historia sobre el deudalismo de las ciencias naturales y las ciencias del espíritu, Con dos finales más bien abruptos; Capítulo 2 - Historia cultural y modernidad; Capítulo 3 - Poder, representación y violencia. Anexos.
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This article enquires about the place of the social during the presidencies of Eugene R. Black (1949–1963) and Robert McNamara (1968–1981) at the World Bank. Black made technical assistance an integral part of the Bank’s mission. McNamara... more
This article enquires about the place of the social during the presidencies of Eugene R. Black (1949–1963) and Robert McNamara (1968–1981) at the World Bank. Black made technical assistance an integral part of the Bank’s mission. McNamara announced social policy as part of the Bank’s economic agenda in 1970. The article asks why it took so long for social policies to arrive and why the initial concern was not the well-being of the population but reducing its number. Using a political ontology approach, I argue that in the process of establishing a global authority over ‘one-world’, the Bank did not recognize differences. I pay attention to the mechanisms translating a pluriverse into one-world and the effects on the presence and absence of social programs. I conclude that the process within the Bank was far from consistent. The expectation is that knowing how one-world is re-enacted would open spaces for a pluriversal world.
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This article argues that, historically, indigenous peoples in Bolivia have been aware of the limits of citizenship and western politics in countering the exclusion of their lifeworld from modernity. However, notwithstanding this, they... more
This article argues that, historically, indigenous peoples in Bolivia have been aware of the limits of citizenship and western politics in countering the exclusion of their lifeworld from modernity. However, notwithstanding this, they have not discarded the concept of citizenship entirely but have supplemented it in novel ways in order to reinstate a place for their own lifeworld. Two key concepts guide the discussion. This first is the concept of equality inspired by Jacques Rancière's emphasis on a presupposition of equality by the excluded, those who are not counted, and the literature on ‘acts of citizenship’. The second concept is that of colonial difference invoked to modify the world that has excluded indigenous peoples and to reinstate a place for their own lifeworld. The article suggests that the concept of ‘acts of indigenship’ is a productive way to apprehend and analyze the transformative potential of combining concepts of indigeneity and citizenship.
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Citizenship is the cornerstone of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's democratic security policy. In this paper I ask what kind of citizen is formed under this policy. I examine the premises of citizenship when implemented under the double... more
Citizenship is the cornerstone of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's democratic security policy. In this paper I ask what kind of citizen is formed under this policy. I examine the premises of citizenship when implemented under the double logic of democracy and security, drawing upon the thoughts of Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault. My conclusion is that in Colombia the tensions between security and democracy are resolved with a bias towards the security rather than the democracy side of the equation. The consequence is the formation of a citizen less inclined to claim his or her rights politically and more prone to ‘voluntary obedience’ in return for protection; rather than a lasting peace this engenders a continuation of the barbarisms, this time in the name of securing citizens. I point out that the answers to these contradictions are found in the resistance movements of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities, peasants, peace communities and the movement of victims of all armed actors. I suggest a framework for analysis inspired by decolonial thinkers.
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The opening to cultural differences in IPE/development is presented in academic circles as a disciplinary breakthrough. The cultural turn welcomes contributions from semiotics, ethnology, sociology, geography, and ethics. Surprisingly,... more
The opening to cultural differences in IPE/development is presented in academic circles as a disciplinary breakthrough. The cultural turn welcomes contributions from semiotics, ethnology, sociology, geography, and ethics. Surprisingly, despite the claim for this being a ‘cultural approach’, there have been few attempts to incorporate proposals from marginalized cultures. Absent from a cultural political economy are counter-discourses coming from critical development studies, including from subaltern, postcolonial, and postdevelopment scholars. This paper argues for an international political economy/development otherwise which leads to a ‘different place’, a different ‘beginning’, and ‘spatial sites of struggles and building rather than to a new temporality within the same space’ (Walter Mignolo). Thinking otherwise includes theorizing from economies and subjectivities that were never fully capitalist, the use of ‘in-between’ epistemologies, the incorporation of coloniality as the other side of modernity, and the envisioning of noncapitalist possibilities. The forgetting of colonialism and the suppression of noncapitalist alternatives has important consequences for the fields of development and political economy: the critique of capitalism is incomplete; different forms of resistance are overlooked, and alternative sources of innovation and creativity are ignored. This paper analyses cultural, ethnological, oppositional, postcapitalist, and decolonial political economies/development, and considers the extent to which these alternatives allow for decolonization and disidentification from capitalism.
La apertura a las diferencias culturales en la Economía Política Internacional/Desarrollo (IPE, por sus siglas en inglés) se presenta dentro de los círculos académicos como un logro disciplinario. El ‘giro cultural’ acepta contribuciones de semiótica, etnología, sociología, geografía y ética. A pesar de pretender ser una ‘estrategia cultural’, sorprendentemente han habido pocos intentos de incorporar propuestas que se originan en culturas marginales. Los argumentos que provienen de estudios críticos de desarrollo, que incluyen estudios subalternos, postcoloniales y del postdesarrollo, están ausentes de una economía política cultural (CPE, por sus siglas en inglés). Este documento propone una economía política internacional/desarrollo que conduce a un ‘lugar diferente’, un ‘inicio’ diferente y ‘a sitios espaciales de luchas y desarrollos en lugar de una nueva temporalidad dentro del mismo espacio’ (Walter Mignolo). Pensar de otra manera incluye teorizar sobre economías y subjetividades que nunca fueron completamente capitalistas, el uso de epistemologías intermedias, la incorporación de la colonialidad como la otra cara de la modernidad y la visualización de posibilidades emancipadoras. El olvido del colonialismo y la eliminación de alternativas no capitalistas tienen consecuencias importantes para los campos del desarrollo y la economía política: la crítica del capitalismo es incompleta; se descuidaron diferentes formas de resistencia y se ignoraron alternativas de fuentes de innovación y creatividad. Este documento analiza las economías políticas/desarrollo culturales, etnológicas, de oposición, poscapitalistas y descoloniales y considera la amplitud que estas alternativas contemplan para la descolonización y desidentificación del capitalismo.
La apertura a las diferencias culturales en la Economía Política Internacional/Desarrollo (IPE, por sus siglas en inglés) se presenta dentro de los círculos académicos como un logro disciplinario. El ‘giro cultural’ acepta contribuciones de semiótica, etnología, sociología, geografía y ética. A pesar de pretender ser una ‘estrategia cultural’, sorprendentemente han habido pocos intentos de incorporar propuestas que se originan en culturas marginales. Los argumentos que provienen de estudios críticos de desarrollo, que incluyen estudios subalternos, postcoloniales y del postdesarrollo, están ausentes de una economía política cultural (CPE, por sus siglas en inglés). Este documento propone una economía política internacional/desarrollo que conduce a un ‘lugar diferente’, un ‘inicio’ diferente y ‘a sitios espaciales de luchas y desarrollos en lugar de una nueva temporalidad dentro del mismo espacio’ (Walter Mignolo). Pensar de otra manera incluye teorizar sobre economías y subjetividades que nunca fueron completamente capitalistas, el uso de epistemologías intermedias, la incorporación de la colonialidad como la otra cara de la modernidad y la visualización de posibilidades emancipadoras. El olvido del colonialismo y la eliminación de alternativas no capitalistas tienen consecuencias importantes para los campos del desarrollo y la economía política: la crítica del capitalismo es incompleta; se descuidaron diferentes formas de resistencia y se ignoraron alternativas de fuentes de innovación y creatividad. Este documento analiza las economías políticas/desarrollo culturales, etnológicas, de oposición, poscapitalistas y descoloniales y considera la amplitud que estas alternativas contemplan para la descolonización y desidentificación del capitalismo.
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This paper argues that we need to broaden the understanding of political economy beyond the circulation of 'things' so as to include forms of production, transformationand exchange of meanings. To illustrate the argument, the paper... more
This paper argues that we need to broaden the understanding of political economy beyond the circulation of 'things' so as to include forms of production, transformationand exchange of meanings. To illustrate the argument, the paper focuses on the contradictory encounter between two regimes of representation in nineteenth-century Colombia: the 'will to civilization' and laissez-faire. Because political economy was founded upon the desire to civilize classes, races and gender, the premises for laissez-faire could not be achieved. Arguments about local artisanship, the causes of poverty or the international division of labour were embedded in distinctions between the local and the European: ignorant artisans were contrasted with English workers, theory was preferredto reality and coarse textiles were compared to imported ones. Negative representation of female and Indiandresses increased the desire for imported textiles, which in turn led to the displacementof local manufactures in favour of European ones. In those nations imagined as deprived of civilization, the idea of a self-regulatory principle did not prosper. In Colombia, the formation of gender, class and racial identities within the 'will to civilization' regime of representation arrested the formation of an 'indifferent' capitalist labour market.