Abstract

GONGORA MERA, Manuel Eduardo. Geopolitics of Identity: the Dissemination of Affirmative Actions in the Andes. univ.humanist. [online]. 2014, n.77, pp.35-69. ISSN 0120-4807.

Under a Foucauldian reading of the power-knowledge nexus, this paper combines the diffusion theory and the discourse analysis to study knowledge asymmetries present in the diffusion process of ethno-racial affirmative actions in selected Andean countries. The study aims to show the transnational connections between legal and / or academic discourses and the ethno-racial representations, based on the analysis of recent legislation and constitutional reforms, a literature review of national academic production and interviews with leaders of indigenous and Afrodescendant organizations as well as with servants of public companies related to ethno-racial and antidiscrimination policies. At all these levels (law, social sciences, social movements, public policies) the obtained evidence reveals how expert knowledge places the U.S.A. as a paradigm or model, obscuring the experience of other countries and ruling a liberal multiculturalist agenda. This transfer (vertical, unilateral) of knowledge has had a notable impact in Colombia and Chile, but it has been resisted by alternative epistemic projects, especially in Ecuador and Bolivia.

Keywords : Power / Knowledge; Affirmative Action; Liberal Multiculturalism; Ethnicity; Multiculturalism; Cultural identity; Geopolitics; Political power.

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