Description
Book SynopsisIn
The Geographies of Social Movements Ulrich Oslender examines the activism of black communities in the lowland rain forest of Colombia's Pacific coast to show how the mutually constituting relationships between residents and their environment informs the political process.
Trade Review"Readers from geography, sociology, resource management, sustainability, Latin American studies, peasant studies, political science, and related fields will find value in this work." -- Joseph L. Scarpaci * AAG Review of Books *
"Oslender masterfully ties different threads together to form a compelling argument about the importance of place and space in charting social movement. . . . I cannot help but think of the immense value of this approach for understanding the present U.S. political situation. . . . In a cultural moment that seems increasingly punctuated with high-visibility social movements—I am thinking of Standing Rock and of the Women’s March, for example—Oslender offers a new, more nuanced way to situate our understandings of resistance and movement." -- Kourtney Kinsel * AmeriQuests *
"Ulrich Oslender has produced a significant contribution to the literature on place, space, and social movements. This manuscript convincingly argues for a critical and multi-scalar examination of human and non-human entanglements through his concept of aquatic space." -- Maurice Rafael Magaña * Anthropological Forum *
"With this carefully researched, well-written examination of issues facing Colombia's Pacific lowlands in the twenty-first century, Ulrich Oslender offers two important contributions: first, the elaboration of an innovative, theoretical template inspired by the region's unique geography as a lens to analyze developments that have and are occuring there; and second, a history of the region that reviews its development from colonial times to present." -- Jane M. Rausch * Journal of Global South Studies *
"Oslender’s book is an important contribution to our understanding of social movements, and particularly of Afro-Colombian social mobilization. He shows that traditional accounts of social movements pay attention to their scripts, their documents, and their struggles." -- Farid Samir Benavides Vanegas * Left History *
"We can learn from how Oslender adds a critical place perspective to theories of social movements. He indeed demonstrates that concepts of space and place are central to thinking about how people mobilize as political collectives." -- Allison Koch * Environment and Society *
"Oslender’s beautifully crafted book is also the product of many years of research—and it likewise benefits from a depth of expertise. . . . Oslender is trained as a geographer, but the book is deeply ethnographic and will be of interest to anthropologists of water, space, place, and social movements. In beautiful prose, he recounts the way the tides configure everyday life among this fishing community, where both travel and livelihoods pulse with their rhythms, while arguing that peasant activism emerges from these specific contexts." -- Colin Hoag * PoLAR *
Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations vii
Acknowledgments xi
Prologue. Black Communities in Colombia and the Constitution of 1991 1
Introduction. The Geographies of Social Movements 7
1. Toward a Critical Place Perspective on Social Movements 25
Interlude. Meeting Don Agapito: Reflections on Fieldwork 36
2. Mapping Meandering Poetics and an Aquatic Sense of Place: Oral Tradition as Hidden Transcript of Resistance 46
3. Historical Geographies of Resistance and
Convivencia in the Pacific Lowlands 92
4. Mobilizing the Aquatic Space: The Forming of Community Councils 135
5. Ideals, Practices, and Leadership of the Community Councils 159
Epilogue 205
Notes 221
Glossary 251
References 255
Index 277
