Abstract

OLARTE, Renán Silva. Geography, State and Society in Colombia, 1930-1960. The Republic’s General Comptroller’s project of the Economic Geographies of Colombia. Hist. Soc. [online]. 2017, n.33, pp.201-243. ISSN 0121-8417.  https://doi.org/10.15446/hys.n33.62308.

This paper analyses an official -state-ledinitiative, mostly ignored by historians until today, in the context of the Colombian nation-building process during the XX century. This initiative consisted in the elaboration of texts of Economic Geography by the Republic’s Office of the General Comptroller. Its purpose was to use these texts as tools to design national, regional, and sectorial policies, as well as to publicly disseminate a new kind of knowledge about the country and its resources. The examination of this project, which is the direct object of analysis in this article, shows a State that is struggling to leave behind an excessively partisan and political XIX century, while trying to guide itself by a body of technical knowledge. Such knowledge, produced by technicians and experts at the State’s service, tried to put aside partisan politics as its prime referent, and rather serve as an instrument of material and social progress.

Keywords : State; society; geography; economic geography; statistics; social science; Marx; Marxism, World War Two (author).

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