Abstract
Arturo Escobar argues that violence is not only endemic but constitutive of development. He suggests that the level of violence is closely tied to a feature of modernity that has become so naturalized that it is no longer remarked upon and at times even celebrated: displacement. Indeed, modernity is essentially about displacement – conquering territories, uprooting peoples from place, restructuring spaces, such as creating plantations and urban sprawl or ghettoes. He uses his work on Colombia to illustrate his argument.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Santos distinguishes his position from those who think that there are modern solutions to modern problems (e.g. Habermas, Giddens, Castells) and from those ‘celebratory post-moderns’ (Baudrillard, Lyotard, Derrida), for whom the lack of modern solutions to modern problems is not itself a problem, but rather a solution of sorts.
For recent treatments of the current situation in Colombia, see Garay (2002), Ahumada and Caballero, (2000), Leal (1999), and the special issue of Revista Foro on ‘Colombia's New Right’ (2003).
Plan Colombia is a US-based multi-billion dollar strategy intended to control both drug production and trafficking and guerrilla activity. Spearheaded by the Colombian and US governments, Plan Colombia actually constitutes a strategy of militarization and control of the Andean region as a whole. Among the aspects of Plan Colombia most criticized by Colombian and international organizations are the indiscriminate programme of fumigation, the increased militarization it has fostered, and the overall escalation of the armed conflict it has brought about, particularly in Colombia.
Local social movements in the Pacific seem to be clear about this. For them, displacement is part of a concerted counter-attack on the territorial gains of ethnic communities throughout the continent, from the Zapatista to the Mapuche. This happens because the socio-economic projects of the armed actors do not coincide with those of the ethnic communities. This is why local social movements emphasize a principle of return as a general policy for the displaced groups of the Pacific, and the declaration of the region as a territory of peace, happiness and freedom, free of all forms of armed violence. See Escobar (2003) for an extended discussion of these issues.
References
Ahumada Consuelo and Antonio Caballero (2000) Qué está pasando en Colombia?, (What's Happening in Colombia?), Bogotá: El Ancora Editores.
Castells Manuel (1996) The Rise of the Network Society, Oxford: Blackwell.
Escobar Arturo (2004) ‘Beyond the Third World: Imperial globality, global coloniality, and anti-globalization social movements, Third World Quarterly 25(1).
Escobar Arturo (2003) ‘Displacement and Development in the Colombian Pacific, International Social Science Journal 175.
Garay Jorge Luis (ed.) (2002) Colombia: Entre la esclusión y el desarrollo, (Colombia: Between exclusion and development), Bogotá: Contralora General de la República.
Joxe Alain (2002) Empire of Disorder, New York: Semiotext(e).
Leal Francisco (ed.) (1999) Los laberintos de la guerra: Utopías e incertidumbres sobre la paz (The Labyrinths of War: Utopias and uncertainties of the peace), Bogotá: Tercer Mundo.
Revista Foro (2003) ‘Colombia's New Right’, (special issue, number 46).
Rosero Carlos (2001) ‘Los afrodescendientes y el conflicto armado en Colombia: la insistencia en lo propio como alternativa’, (Afro-descendents and the armed conflict in Colombia: insistence on the self as an alternative), paper presented at the international symposium on ‘Pasado, presente y futuro de los afrodescendientes’ (Past, present and future of Afro-descendents), Cartagena, 18–20 October.
Santos Boaventura de Sousa (2002) Towards a New Legal Common Sense, London: Butterworth.
Wallerstein Immanuel (2000) ‘Globalization, or the Age of Transition? A long-term view of the trajectory of the world system’, International Sociology 15(2).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Escobar, A. Development, Violence and the New Imperial Order. Development 47, 15–21 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.development.1100014
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.development.1100014