Towards De(s)colonial Research in the Global Rural: A Feminist Feeling-Thinking Study with Rural Women in Colombia Laura Rodriguez Castro Bachelor of Journalism Bachelor of Journalism with Honours School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science Arts, Education and Law Griffith University Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 2018 Abstract This dissertation is a feminist de(s)colonial study with rural women in Colombia. It documents and validates the lives, labour and agency of rural women by re-signifying place as a site of resistance and negotiation within a neoliberal context. Descolonialism is not a concrete theory. It is a process that is alive, emphasising the openness of identities, the entanglement of ways of thinking and the notion of feeling-thinking. It is an approach that opens up spaces to think from the localities and social spaces of activism and research. In using descolonialism as the epistemology for this thesis, I implemented a feminist participatory visual methodology, collecting data from two case studies in the towns of Toca and Minca. The case studies involved focus groups that included photo- elicitation interviews with campesina women, as well as the collaborative organisation of two photographic exhibitions where further informal interviews were conducted with the community. Data for the thesis were also generated through in-depth interviews with women activists involved in social movements and organisations focused on rural women in Colombia. Collectively, the data demonstrate that rural women are agents in place, resisting colonial practices such as the impact of climate change, agroindustries, machismo and exploitative tourism. While campesina women experience social inequality, they enact resistance in places such as the home, vereda, and the city, and contest violence against their territories bodies-lands. As such, rural women in Colombia challenge their positioning by hegemonic feminisms and neoliberal projects as lacking agency and in need of saving. The research demonstrates the importance of feminist, feeling-thinking, place-based research to conceptualising the countryside as an embodied relational space constituted by multiplicities and histories. In calling for alliances that trouble neoliberal projects (including academia) I conclude this thesis by stating that there is an urgent need to support autonomy struggles in Colombia, in the context of the critical historical moment after the peace accord signature with the FARC-EP in 2016. Overall, this thesis contributes to the growing literature emerging from the Global South that makes visible and supports the progressive politics and new paradigms that question the colonial bias of hegemonic feminisms and neoliberal projects. 2 Statement of Originality This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. __________________ Laura Rodriguez Castro 3 Publications Arising from this Dissertation Sections of this dissertation have been or will be published in the following journal articles and book chapters: Rodriguez Castro, L., Pini, B., & Baker, S. (2016). The global countryside: Peasant women negotiating, recalibrating and resisting rural change in Colombia. Gender, Place & Culture, 23(11), 1547-1559. Rodriguez Castro, L. (In Press). Feeling-thinking for a feminist participatory visual ethnography. In D. Kember & M. Corbett (Eds.), Structuring the Thesis – Matching Method, Paradigm, Theory and Findings. Springer. Pini, B., Mayes, R., & Rodriguez Castro, L. (forthcoming). Rurality, geography and feminism: Troubling relationships. In P. Hopkins (Ed.), Handbook of Feminist Geographies. Routledge. Additionally, included in this thesis is the following paper in Chapter Three for which I am the sole author: Rodriguez Castro, L. (2017). The embodied countryside: Methodological reflections in place. Sociologia Ruralis. doi:10.1111/soru.12172 I have the right to the use of this journal article in this thesis according to the Copyright Transfer Agreement with Wiley on behalf of European Society for Rural Sociology. Signed: __________________ Laura Rodriguez Castro 20/03/2018 Countersigned: Barbara Pini 20/03/2018 4 Ethical Clearance (GU Ref No: HUM/16/15/HREC): A Full National Ethics approval was granted on 18 June 2015 for Phase One of the project. An additional ethics variation to include Phase Two of the research was granted on 29 July 2015. Please see Appendix A for confirmation of ethical clearance. 5 Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... 2 Statement of Originality ................................................................................................. 3 Publications Arising from this Dissertation ................................................................. 4 Ethical Clearance ............................................................................................................ 5 List of Figures ................................................................................................................. 9 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... 11 PART A: INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY ........................................... 13 CHAPTER ONE: Introduction ........................................................................................... 14 1.1 Towards De(s)colonising Hegemonic Feminisms ........................................................ 17 1.2 Understanding De(s)colonial Struggles ........................................................................ 22 1.3 De(s)colonising Place ................................................................................................... 24 1.4 Significance and Research Statement ........................................................................... 25 1.5 The Colombian Context................................................................................................ 28 1.6 Thesis Overview ........................................................................................................... 31 CHAPTER TWO: From the Farm to the Photo-Exhibition: A Methodological Overview ................................................................................................................................ 34 2.1 Phase One: Case Studies .............................................................................................. 36 2.1.1 Case Study Sites .................................................................................................................. 37 2.1.2 Participant Recruitment in Case Study Sites ....................................................................... 39 2.2 Participatory Research Methods within Case Studies .................................................. 41 2.2.1 Visual Methods ................................................................................................................... 41 2.2.2 Photographic Documentation of Campesina Women’s Everyday Lives ............................. 45 2.2.3 Photo-Elicitation Interviews ................................................................................................ 46 2.2.4 Focus Groups ...................................................................................................................... 46 2.2.5 Photographic Exhibitions .................................................................................................... 48 2.3 Phase Two: In-depth Interviews ................................................................................... 54 2.4 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................ 56 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 58 CHAPTER THREE: Reflections from The Field .............................................................. 59 3.1 Navigating Place in the Rural Field .............................................................................. 62 3.2 On Participatory Methods in the Rural Field ................................................................ 67 3.3 Addressing Positionality and Reflexivity in the Everyday ........................................... 75 6 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 78 PART B: THE LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................. 80 CHAPTER FOUR: Globalisation and the Neoliberal Countryside ................................. 81 4.1 Rural Studies in Latin America .................................................................................... 83 4.2 Feminist Rural Studies in the Global Rural .................................................................. 85 4.3 The Latin America Peasantry: Definitions and Debates ............................................... 88 4.3.1 Peasant Women as Subject of the Peasantry ....................................................................... 92 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 96 CHAPTER