Abstract

GUERRERO BERNAL, Juan Carlos. Transforming the Spectators into a Public: A Challenge in Transnational Advocacy Campaigns. colomb.int. [online]. 2012, n.76, pp.195-228. ISSN 0121-5612.

This paper clarifies a distinction the sociologists make between the notions of spectator and public. Based on this distinction and on an ethnographic survey carried out in France among people who are distant spectators of the violence in Colombia, the paper states that these observers cannot be considered as a public concerned by Colombian issues. The purpose is to explain why it is difficult to turn those spectators into a public. This transformation does not come easily, not so much by the fact that many French viewers have no particular ties with Colombia, but rather because of two reasons. Firstly, because it is not common that the Colombian internal problems emerge as a subject of daily discussion in France. Secondly, because French spectators strive to make what is happening in Colombia intelligible.

Keywords : Transnational political activism; distant spectator; international public; Colombian violence; France.

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