Indigenous and Peasant Autonomy in Latin America: Agency, Governance and Land Rights.

Indigenous and Peasant Autonomy in Latin America: Agency, Governance and Land Rights.
Monday, February 10, 2020
York Lanes 305
2:30am – 4:30 pm
Free and open to all.
A panel discussion:
Ritsuko Funaki, Chuo University, Japan I María Fernanda Herrera, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile I Miguel González, York University, Canada I Jeffery Webber, Department of Political Science, York University
The processes of indigenous territorial autonomy as n exercise of self-determination are today a reality in several countries of Latin America. Similarly, an expectation of the future for indigenous peoples that gives meaning to their political struggles of the present. A decade ago some academic works attempted to capture the origins, dynamics and diversity of indigenous self-determination processes, the result of constitutional reform processes inspired in part by the multicultural paradigm. At present, the scenario of indigenous autonomies is much more complex and diverse and is also contradictory. This panel, will offer an overview of the state of autonomy in Latin America, contributions that are part of a collective book in a publication project (Abya-Yala, 2020). The presentations will provide an update of the experiences and autonomous self-governments already operating in Bolivia and Nicaragua, and of struggles to secure land rights in Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, and Paraguay, evaluating the the advances, challenges and threats to indigenous rights over three decades, from 1990 to 2020.
Ritsuko Funaki is an associate professor at Chuo University, Tokyo. Currently, she is a visiting researcher at CERLAC, York University (Apr.2019-Mar.2021). Her research interest is in finding out how to make formal democratic institutions work better for politically, socially, and economically disadvantaged people in Latin America.
Miguel Gonzalez (PhD, York University) is an Adjunct Professor in the International Development Studies program at York University, Toronto, Canada. In 2016 Miguel co-edited a thematic issue of the Latin America and Caribbean Ethnic Studies Journal (LACES) on the topic of Indigenous Autonomies in Latin America.
Maria Fernanda Herrera is professor at Universidad Mayor and researcher at Alberto Hurtado University, in Santiago of Chile. Her interest in research delves with exploring how to grasp several matrices of civilizations, western and native peoples, in a context of participatory democracy and the search for inclusion and political and economic equity in Latin America.
Jeffery R. Webber is a political economist with research interests in Latin America, Marxism, social theory, the history of the Left, international development, capitalism and nature, imperialism, the politics of class and social oppression, and class formation and social movements. He is author or co-author of five books – includingImpasse in Latin America: The Rise and Decline of Progressivism, 1990-2018, with Franck Gaudichaud and Massimo Modonesi (forthcoming).