Colombia’s rural development conundrum: how strategic management can produce real alternatives for the 21st century Colombia’s rural development conundrum: how strategic management can produce real alternatives for the 21st century

Resumen

ABSTRACT

A Colombian president stated one time that the rural sector is more than only agriculture, peace resides there. The urban-rural dialectic is alive in Colombia. The establishment continues to believe that through “modernizing” activities, solutions will come, which means that an efficient urbanization and industrialization will provide the necessary taxes for the future rural sector development. Colombia’s rural sector subsists in a double jeopardy situation. On one hand, is seeing as a violent space in Colombia, as a threat. On the other side, is looked upon, left aside to only some traditional hacendados and some oil companies. The Agricultural Ministry is a typical bureaucratic position, “una corbata”. The rural sector is nor relevant when dealing with Colombia’s crisis solutions. Do not seeing the rural sector weight in Colombia’s situation is also a threat, another one. Because in the long-run the threat is real, and consequently, the alternatives for solutions are not taken seriously or seen as irrelevant—the transmilenio is more important, of course!. This “Rural Development Conundrum” is analyzed in this paper, looking for the structural and cultural “causes”. Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural-structuralism is used, showing that past structures, natural or artificial, as well as culture—pattern of behavior—present in 19th century Colombia, are strongly relevant in order to understand contemporary Colombia, to say, institutions and the State. Aware of this cultural-structuralism, some alternatives are proposed with some illustrative examples, using not only the same methodological approach but also giving similar weight to cultural and/or economic alternatives, in order to avoid repeating the same mistake: a unilinear view of development that would add more momentum to the double jeopardy and the conundrum.

RESUMEN

Un presidente colombiano dijo alguna vez que el sector rural es más que sólo la agricultura y que la paz reside allí. La dialéctica urbano-rural está viva en Colombia. El Estado sigue creyendo que al “modernizar” las actividades, las soluciones vendrán, lo que significa que la urbanización y la industrialización eficiente proporcionarán los impuestos necesarios para el futuro desarrollo del sector rural. El sector rural en Colombia, subsiste en una situación de doble riesgo; por un lado, es ver como un espacio violento en el país, es una amenaza y por otro, como este dejó de lado a algunos hacendados tradicionales y algunas compañías petroleras. El Ministerio de Agricultura es una típica posición burocrática, “una corbata”. El sector rural es irrelevante cuando se trata de plantear soluciones ante la crisis de Colombia. No ver el peso del sector rural en la situación colombiana es también una amenaza, debido a que a largo plazo será real. En consecuencia, las alternativas de solución no son tomadas en serio o son vistas como irrelevantes (por supuesto, ¡Transmilenio es más importante!). Aquí se analiza este “enigmático desarrollo rural”, en busca de las causas estructurales y culturales.