Watch the event online from Tiedetv on Youtube.

During the last few decades, Latin America has seen the emergence of intensified political tensions in various fields of life that carry the potential of creating new social and cultural beginnings. Panel explores such political tensions in three fields in contemporary Latin America: the conflicts between the extractive industry and indigenous people, Latin America’s colonial legacy of racism and its contemporary anti-racist activism, and the new possibilities of protest and criticism opened by globalized digitalisation that may challenge local political governance.

The three presentations will discuss ethnographic research findings from three contexts: Bolivian race relations, Amazonian mining industry, and Cuba’s emerging digitalisation. The presentations will explore how the contemporary tensions draw on longer historical legacies and are simultaneously creating new social and cultural openings.

• Chairperson: Grant Researcher Heidi Härkönen (University of Helsinki)
• Grant Researcher Heidi Härkönen (University of Helsinki): Emerging digitalisation and plural values in contemporary Cuba
• Academy Researcher Eija Ranta (University of Helsinki): Decolonizing Revolutions: Anti-Racism Activism amidst Latin American Progressive Politics
• Doctoral Researcher Sebastian Caballero Paz (University of Helsinki): Amazon gold rush – conflicts, risks and challenges