Peter Wade
peter.wade@man.ac.uk
Universidad de Manchester (UK)
Abstract:
The article first reviews evidence of the economic, political and social exclusion of Afro-descendent and indigenous groups in Latin America. Then it surveys the array of multiculturalist legal and political reforms that have taken place in the region in the last 15-20 years, before analyzing the various arguments that have been proposed to explain this shift in state policy towards ethnic minorities, balancing arguments that highlight the interests of the state and capitalism against those that emphasize the agency of ethnic minority movements. Finally, the article attempts to assess the impact of the reforms on patterns of social exclusion of ethnic minorities, with a focus on the Colombian Pacific coastal region as a case study.
Keywords: Afro-descendent and indigenous groups, multiculturalist legal and political reforms, social exclusion of ethnic minorities, Latin America, Pacific region
