Historic Racial Exclusion and Subnational Socio-Economic Outcomes in Colombia: Equal But Different

This book examines the geo-racialized order of the Colombian state and its consequences for Afro-descendant territories. To do so, it employs a historical institutional approach tracing racial exclusion and subnational socioeconomic outcomes in Colombia during the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. It uses a mixed-methods and interdisciplinary qualitative and quantitative analytical approach to identify the quantitative effects of informal racial exclusion on subnational collective outcomes, as well as to show more precisely how these effects were generated. Through its exploration of Colombia’s geo-racialized project, implicit exclusion of Afro-descendant territories and spatialized nature of racial diversity, this book contributes to literatures of Latin American political economy, institutional theory, racial politics and economic history.

Irina España-Eljaiek is Assistant Professor at Universidad Nacional, Bogotá, Colombia. She holds a doctoral degree in economics and social sciences from the University of Cologne and the International Max Planck Research School, both in Germany. Her research interests include institutional theory, economic history, regional development, racial exclusion, education, and research methods. She specifically studies the effects of historical institutions on subnational socioeconomic development in Latin America, combining mixed method approaches and social science disciplines.