Browsing by Author "Walden, Ella"

This thesis studies the relationship between resistance and transportation infrastructure. The aim is to explore the links between the material and cultural contexts around strategically important transportation infrastructure and social movements with strategies to disrupt the flows of infrastructural networks. These issues are studied through the case of the civic strike of Buenaventura and related social mobilisation during the period of 2017-2022, in which the operations of one of Colombia’s most strategic ports have been brought to a halt for weeks at a time. The study examines the context of the strike through the theoretical frameworks of extractivist capital, infrastructure related grievances, racism, and structural unemployment caused by dispossession. The thesis discusses the themes of ethno-territorial conflict and colonialism using various theorists from the field of development studies and political sciences. This thesis portrays how the mobilisation in Buenaventura stems from the historical process in which the Afro-Colombian communities have created and defended an alternative model for development that highlights the collective rights of local communities. This thesis was conducted as a qualitative case study that uses content analysis as a method of analysis. This ethnographically oriented research was conducted as participatory observation, semi-structured interviews, and integrative literary research. The data consists of NGO reports and interviews with local activists, social leaders, academics, and government officials, alongside an in-depth theoretical review. This study shows that traditional ways of understanding capital and labour resistance offer useful information but are not adequate for explaining the context behind social movements targeting infrastructural networks. Rather than resorting to traditional means of labour suppression, the division between local communities and infrastructural actors has been created through processes of exclusion, leading to a situation in which local communities have little access to the port and the wealth generated by its activities. The analysis led to the conclusion that issues of land rights, colonialism, infrastructural development, violence, and corruption are all embedded in the dynamics of state neglect towards the communities around the port of Buenaventura.