Revista de Ingeniería

revinge | eISSN 2011-0049 | ISSN 0121-4993

“Apocalypse foretold”: a shift in the politics of risk in Colombia since 1985

No. 31 (2010-01-01)
  • Austin Zeiderman
    a Candidato a Doctor en Antropología, Universidad de Stanford, San Francisco, California, Estados Unidos. Investigador visitante, Centro de Estudios Sociales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Investigador visitante, Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia (ICANH), Bogotá D.C., Colombia. agz@stanford.edu
  • Laura Astrid Ramírez Elizalde
    b Antropóloga, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Bogotá D.C., Colombia. lauraastrid.ramirez@gmail.com

Abstract

This article proposes to investigate the emergence of risk management and disaster prevention in Colombian national and municipal policy, focusing on the city of Bogotá and using a methodology that combines historical and anthropological approaches. We establish its temporal framework as beginning in 1985, since the conjuncture that occurred in November of that year with the tragedy of Armero and the siege of the Palacio de Justicia just one week before generated, in the domain of political culture, a new emphasis on the issue of risk.

Keywords: Colombia, history, political culture, prevention, public policy, risk management