Event Date: March 10, 2020 - 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Location: FSS 4006, 120 University Private

Presented by CIPS and the School of International Development and Global Studies

Dr. Lorenza Fontana 

Recognition reforms have had an empowering effect on traditionally marginalized indigenous groups and, in turn, have strengthened democratization and improved the quality of political communities. Yet these positive effects have come with unforeseen social costs. In this talk, I will present the main argument of a book manuscript in which I analyze, through extensive empirical research across three countries (Bolivia, Colombia and Peru), the rise of what I call recognition conflicts. These disputes occur in rural remote areas between peasants and indigenous peoples—groups identified along class and ethnic lines—characterized by widespread poverty, social marginalization, environmental fragility and a deep colonial history. These conflicts deserve attention not only because of the negative impact they have on local communities, but also because they open up new and important questions in contemporary global debates on equality and diversity. Why are groups that have peacefully cohabited for decades suddenly engaging in hostile and at times violent behaviours? What is the link between these conflicts and changes in collective self-identification, claim-making and rent-seeking dynamics? And how, in turn, are these changes driven by broader institutional, legal and policy reforms?

Lorenza Fontana is an Assistant Professor in International Politics at Newcastle University, UK. Her research interests include conflict studies and contentious politics, human rights and global justice, ethnic politics and natural resource governance in Latin America. Her work has been published in World Development, Development and Change, Global Governance, Human Rights Quarterly, Development Policy Review, Journal of Peasant Studies, among others.