Scuola di Studi Superiori "Ferdinando Rossi" dell'Università degli Studi di Torino - SSST

Mediation and negotiation of conflicts (visiting professor)

Mediation and negotiation of conflicts (visiting professor)

Anno accademico 2018/2019

Sommario insegnamento

• Obiettivi formativi
• Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento
• Testi consigliati e bibliografia
• Strumenti didattici

Obiettivi formativi

Course description

Only in the last thirty years Latin America countries have recognized the multicultural character of the societies they command. Before, State policies and legal frameworks were clearly ethnocentric and aimed at civilizing their population. The struggles of indigenous people at the international, national, and local levels have refashioned both the law and policies of most Latin America. Taking Peru as a case in point this course offers an overview of this complex process. Firstly, it shows how the rule of the ethnocentric State was (and is) questioned by the political, cultural and economic demands of indigenous people. Secondly, it provides an overview of the legal and institutional changes that have reshaped the relations between the State and indigenous people. Thirdly, it provides ethnographic examples of the negotiations, accommodations and open conflicts that have shaped the process. These examples include the struggle over the implementation of the right to prior consultation to indigenous people, the conflicts unleashed by ethnocentric development projects, and the unsolved question of balancing indigenous or peasant rights vis a vis the expansion of mining and oil corporations, among others. Finally, the course provides an assessment of the accomplishments and failures in the construction of a truly multicultural and democratic body politic.
The choice of Peru as a case study is justified because the country has an important indigenous population that has been historically discriminated and subordinated by the white and criollo elites. Thus, despite the important changes in State law and policies the country is far from coming to grips with its multicultural fabric.

Learning objectives

• Display the usefulness of the anthropological approach to legal, institutional and political issues
• Study and reflect on the tensions between ethnocentric States and multicultural societies
• Provide an overview of the emergence of indigenous people as international, national and local actors and of their struggles against discriminatory and unfair laws and policies
• Map the legal and institutional reforms launched by a developing country like Peru in order to meet the multicultural challenge
• Provide ethnographic examples of the tense dialogue and open conflict that characterize the relations between the Peruvian State and indigenous people
• Invite the students to draw comparisons between the multicultural challenge in developed and developing countries

Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento

Written text- Each student shall prepare a paper consisting of 4000 words+ table of contents and bibliography

Readings will be assigned during the course

Orario lezioni

• Materiale didattico
• Bacheca appelli
• Vai a Moodle
• Visita i forum