The Colombian activist Juan Gregorio Palechor (1923–1992) dedicated his life to championing indigenous rights in Cauca, a department in the southwest of Colombia, where he helped found the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca. Recounting his life story in collaboration with the Colombian anthropologist Myriam Jimeno, Palechor traces his political awakening, his experiences in national politics, the disillusionment that resulted, and his turn to a more radical activism aimed at confronting ethnic discrimination and fighting for indigenous territorial and political sovereignty. Palechor's lively memoir is complemented by Jimeno's reflections on autobiography as an anthropological tool and on the oppressive social and political conditions faced by Colombia's indigenous peoples. A faithful and fluent transcription of Palechor's life story, this work is a uniquely valuable resource for understanding the contemporary indigenous rights movements in Colombia.

In recent decades, there has been a substantial turn towards narrative and life history study. The embrace of narrative and life history work has accompanied the move to postmodernism and post-structuralism across a wide range of disciplines: sociological studies, gender studies, cultural studies, social history; literary theory; and, most recently, psychology. Written by leading international scholars from the main contributing perspectives and disciplines, The Routledge International Handbook on Narrative and Life History seeks to capture the range and scope as well as the considerable complexity of the field of narrative study and life history work by situating these fields of study within the historical and contemporary context. Topics covered include: • The historical emergences of life history and narrative study • Techniques for conducting life history and narrative study • Identity and politics • Generational history • Social and psycho-social approaches to narrative history With chapters from expert contributors, this volume will prove a comprehensive and authoritative resource to students, researchers and educators interested in narrative theory, analysis and interpretation.

El seminario internacional «El uso de las historias de vida en ciencias sociales: teorías, metodologías y prácticas» tuvo lugar en la ciudad de Villa de Ley va (Colombia) del 17 al 20 de marzo de 1992. Se reunieron investigadores de distintas disciplinas académicas y de varios países de América latina como de Europa y Norteamérica, reconocidos por su trabajo en el uso de las historias de vida. El evento fue organizado por el Centro de Investigaciones sobre Dinámica Social (CIDS) de la Universidad Externado de Colombia. La mayor parte de las ponencias en él presentadas, son recompiladas en dos tomos. Los temas principales abordados son los siguientes: historia oral e historia social; movilidad social, trayectorias laborales y las transformaciones socio-estructurales (primer tomo); identidad de género, espacio privado, espacio público; identidad cultural, valores y representaciones. sociales; tendencias actuales en el uso de las historias de vida (en el segundo). Ante la multiplicación de trabajos que recurren a las historias de vida, en contextos con experiencias más o menos recientes, se manifestó la necesidad de producir una reflexión crítica en torno a sus implicaciones teóricas y metodológicas, sus aportes y limitaciones, dentro de los debates sobre su validez. Pero, más allá y a través de esas discusiones, son retratos en vivo de muchos de los actores de nuestras sociedades contemporáneas que se destacan y se cruzan: hombres y mujeres, pobladores urbanos, campesinos, obreros, colonizadores, indígenas, líderes negros, patronas y. empleadas domésticas, políticos y sindicalistas, guerrilleros, etc. Esos relatos muestran destinos individuales, colectivos, de familias, de generaciones. Traducen también identidades múltiples, en crisis o en recomposición.

In the early 1970s, a group of Colombian intellectuals led by the pioneering sociologist Orlando Fals Borda created a research-activist collective called La Rosca de Investigación y Acción Social (Circle of Research and Social Action). Combining sociological and historical research with a firm commitment to grassroots social movements, Fals Borda and his colleagues collaborated with indigenous and peasant organizations throughout Colombia. In Cowards Don’t Make History Joanne Rappaport examines the development of participatory action research on the Caribbean coast, highlighting Fals Borda’s rejection of traditional positivist research frameworks in favor of sharing his own authority as a researcher with peasant activists. Fals Borda and his colleagues inserted themselves as researcher-activists into the activities of the National Association of Peasant Users, coordinated research priorities with its leaders, studied the history of peasant struggles, and, in collaboration with peasant researchers, prepared accessible materials for an organizational readership, thereby transforming research into a political organizing tool. Rappaport shows how the fundamental concepts of participatory action research as they were framed by Fals Borda continue to be relevant to engaged social scientists and other researchers in Latin America and beyond.