LA COORDINADORA CAMPESINA CONTRA LOS EMBALSES, PANAMÁ: 1999-2006. APROXIMACIÓN A UN ANÁLISIS CULTURAL.

Abstract

Here the author analyzes the social, political, economic, cultural, and identity-related details that surrounded the establishment of the Coordinadora Campesina contra los Embalses (CCCE), a social movement born in Panama in 1999. This work describes the role of the communities that would eventually be evicted with the purpose of flooding their lands as part of the expansion project of the Panama Canal; how they became organized to face this threat, creating bonds of solidarity that also displayed intricate social networks within the region in question.

The author parts from the basis of a cultural paradigm and the text analysis approach based on the signification framework methodology set forth by David Snow and Robert Benford, among others. This proposal attempts to study the movement within the context of a four-phase process: rupture of peace and crisis, mobilization or application of reform mechanisms, and restoration of peace.