ISTR Sixth International Conference Toronto, Canada / July 11-14, 2004 Contesting Citizenship and Civil Society in a Divided World

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	Abstracts

Pluriculturalism and Civil Society in Chile. Challenges for Capacity Building
by
Charlotte Hursey
INTRAC, 65 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2BE

This paper will address the issue of contestation of identities linking diverse analyses of the Third Sector, drawing not only from the international literature on non profits and NGOs, but also national studies in Chile, and local research in the northernmost provinces of Tarapacá.

In particular it will seek to demonstrate that not only are there significant differences in approaches to classification, but there are fundamental problems in the ways in which civil society organisations (CSOs) are conceived and portrayed at these different levels. Furthermore, there are issues around the collection and control of data which have implications for its use in the formulation of policies and programmes by governmental and other actors in development.

The research is based on fieldwork carried out amongst local CSOs during the period 2000-2002, principally in the provinces of Arica and Parinacota, but including material from the wider region of Tarapacá, as well as national sources. The methodology used a combination of social, ethnographic and historical research methods, including a range of structured and semi-structured interviews, participant and non participant observation, original data collection, use of archive material and photography. This is placed in the context of other contemporary research, notably by the UNDP in Chile, and an emerging governmental policy for strengthening of civil society organisations, following a presidential directive in May 2001.

The paper will outline the difficulties in presenting an accurate picture of the presence and activities of a wide range of CSOs at the local level, particularly in an area which is remote from the centre of government, and where there is a complex relationship between urban and rural dimensions. The region is characterised not only by the presence of an Aymara majority, which has often been discriminated against or ‘chileanised’ within the state project for national identity, but there are other subtle communities based on origins elsewhere in Latin America, and beyond. The fact that there is now an Indigenous Law in Chile, which allows for parallel forms of organisation, adds another dimension in which individuals and groups may select different organisational characteristics depending on their perceived relative benefits.

These factors in turn raise issues about the nature of ‘civil society’ in the singular, as forwarded in most of the international literature, and may suggest that ‘civil societies’ would be more accurate. However, this poses problems in relation to international and national strategies to ‘strengthen civil society’ through capacity building programmes, and the degree to which these respond to, and reflect, local dynamics and needs

Date received: October 7, 2003

Copyright © 2003 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # camm-35.