Fals Borda and the Root/Decolonial Understanding of Regions and Provinces. Walking through Moors, Riverbanks and Wetlands

Abstract

Orlando Fals Borda is the most recognized Colombian sociologist, both for his status as founder of national sociology, and for his projection in global academic networks regarding Participatory Action Research. These notions about his legacy seem to cloud another (geo)political and cultural contribution to the Colombian nation and to social science, such as his understanding of the limitations of the prevailing forms of administrative organization to respond to the policies of the space produced and lived from the various territorialities subsumed in the secular idea of ​​the centralist state. In this work we will analyze the approaches of his article Territory as social construction (2000), against the light of the journeys through moors and wetlands that allowed Fals to establish a vision of space as variable and subject to transformation dynamics. His sociological understanding of the territory, or other spatial categories such as the region and the province, was characterized by a decolonial position and contrary to the republican order instituted since the 19th century, which led Fals Borda to controversial positions on territorial planning that still exist. They deserve debate, both because of their disruptive geopolitical positioning, and because of their relevance in the current transition from armed conflict to peace in Colombia.