Acción colectiva rural, reforma agraria y política en El Ecuador, ca. 1920-1965

This thesis studies the rural collective action processes between 1920 and 1965 in Ecuador with a social history and political sociology approach. An approximation is carried out towards the conflicts, mobilizations and protests where indigenous and not indigenous peasants participated. Because of this, they are considered two periods, the first one that last from 1931 to 1947, sealed by the political instability and a constant change of governments; and the second one between 1948 and 1965, in a phase of successive constitutionally governments that ruled between 1948 and 1960. The conflicts and rural mobilizations reached a major visibility since 1958, deeply affecting the public opinion. The importance and magnitude of the rural mobilizations between 1959 and 1963 generated a controversy on their political effects in the agrarian change. Certainly, the rural mobilizations influenced in the outcome that took the political crisis, which concluded in the implantation of a military government in 1963. This government issued an Agrarian Reform Law in 1964, which modified partially the working relations and the land ownership. And, in addition, it defined a new type of military intervention in the policies that combined repression with reforms. The existence of a landowner social segment that backed a reform in the rural highland (sierra) society has been generally identified by Galo Plaza's figure. In his government (1948-1952), transformations were accentuated in the State intervention, mainly orientated towards the economic and political modernization. This was a new moment of coastal agro-exportation development with the leadership of the banana production. There were stimulated measures of promotion of the production and exportation of bananas. So, the road infrastructure was intensively spread and connected the producing zones with the export ports...

The question of authenticity in recoveries in post-conflict zones

In most of military conflicts the cultural heritage is being deliberately destroyed. Two main aspects of its destructions are direct and indirect. In the direct destruction the tangible aspects of the monuments are being damaged or destroyed, while indirect destruction of the monument attacks its values – its general context (for instance during the significant demographic changes in the region where the monument is situated, or during the changes of the ideological climate, etc; the monument physically is not changed but its meaning does). When it comes to the recovery of monuments in post-conflict period, most often there are multiple issues. Sometimes the monument can be perfectly restored in its physical aspect, but its intangible aspect (its significance) can remain deformed, which, consequently, affects the perception and the interpretation of the monument. In what measure this incomplete recovery affects the entire monument? Recently in monument protection domain the question of authenticity is being raised, particularly now for the occasion of 20th anniversary of Nara Document on Authenticity, and it is the focus issue of this paper in context of military-conflict related cases. The paper focuses on the case studies of performed recoveries of important monuments in post-conflict zones and it analyzes the success of these recoveries pointing out the authenticity. It also turns on the what way the communities should contribute to the recovery of damaged recoveries (the Nara Document emphasise the importance of social inclusion in the monument protection). The paper features the case studies trying to interpret different aspects of a monument: its material and intangible aspects and their relation. Other documents that this paper relies on is the International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites (the Venice Charter), World Heritage Convention, Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention etc.