Abstract

ACEVEDO TARAZONA, Álvaro  and  CORREA LUGOS, Andrés David. Thinking socio-environmental change: an approach to collective actions in defense of the páramo de Santurbán (Santander, Colombia). Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2019, vol.42, n.1, pp.157-175. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v42n1.73070.

The article analyzes the transition to new ways of understanding the relationship between water and páramo ecosystems in contemporary societies. To that effect, it focuses on the collective actions carried out in the department of Santander (Colombia), in response to the issue of the Páramo de Santurbán and the interest of multinationals to develop large-scale mining projects. The article is the result of a qualitative research project with an interpretive approach, whose main hypothesis is that the collective actions initiated by social actors in view of conflicts that compromise the common good and the future of society enrich their discourse through the anthropomorphization of water and páramos.

In order to understand these actions, it is necessary to consider the oral reconstructions and the memory of the region's population, since they provide a valuable testimony regarding the importance of protecting water, of the páramos, and of the gold economy. The defense of the Páramo de Santurbán evidences the collective actions that highlight the problems concerning natural resources and make proposals to preserve them through a relationship with human beings and their everyday practices.

The research showed that collective actions in defense of the páramo modify the social representations of the actors, with respect to themselves and to spatiality. In this sense, the challenge for the social sciences is to study these new discourses and endow them with accurate analytical elements in order to avoid romantic justifications. Although collective actions advocate the responsible use of natural resources, academics must seek to analyze the contrasts in said proposals and, in the midst of contradictions, paradoxes, and even, senselessness, set forth a position that respects the environment and those who inhabit it.

Keywords : gold; environment; mining; mobilization; páramos; water.

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