History, Archival Science, and Research Networks (HARED)

The purpose of this research line is to create spaces for reflection and research around three closely interconnected thematic areas: oral and iconographic archives, diverse forms of memory, and cultural heritage.

Within the context of the Colombian conflict, efforts to uncover the truth have transformed and enriched traditional archives, which until recently primarily preserved institutional memories and records from a hegemonic, traditionalist, and patriarchal perspective. Today, across the country’s diverse territories, both the memories of the armed conflict and those associated with cultural heritage are reflected in oral testimonies, material expressions created by communities and imbued with symbolic meaning, and a wide range of community-based iconographic materials. These constitute a fundamental source of inquiry for the social sciences, not only because social scientists study and use them as primary sources, but also because their work contributes to their recovery, preservation, and safeguarding.

This research line examines how communities shaped through diverse processes of settlement and resistance in Colombia have strengthened their communal organization in response to environmental challenges and social exclusion, often with limited support from the State, which has appeared only sporadically to confront or contest territorial control exercised by multiple illegal armed groups that, in many cases, impose an alternative social order through violence.

Accordingly, this research line seeks to understand how these territorial and identity-based communities have organized and sustained collective action. To achieve this, it draws on theoretical and conceptual debates in the field of social movement studies. From HARED’s perspective, social movements are understood as non-institutionalized groups of individuals or communities that endure over time and employ diverse repertoires of protest (collective actions) to advocate for rights and social guarantees, equality, and justice.

This research line seeks to contribute to the understanding of the war–peace dichotomy in Colombia and the challenges the State faces in overcoming it, given its limited capacity to establish a sustained and homogeneous presence throughout the country. Instead, State intervention has often been partial, following the paths opened by settler-farming communities in their efforts to distance themselves from the expansionist ambitions of large landowners.

Despite the extensive body of research on violence and the armed conflict, as well as the growing publication of testimonies from victims and perpetrators, further research is still needed to deepen the understanding of the causes, origins, diversity, and persistence of war, as well as the ways in which it has been studied and interpreted.

This research line examines the historical processes that have shaped patterns of health, disease, and health care across populations, exploring the interaction of social, economic, political, cultural, and environmental factors in different contexts and historical periods. Its purpose is to understand population health as a historically constructed phenomenon, resulting from complex social dynamics, institutional transformations, knowledge production, power relations, and changes in living conditions, rather than as the outcome of exclusively technical or biomedical developments.

This research line also investigates how societies have defined, interpreted, and addressed health and disease, considering the diverse perspectives of the actors involved, including communities, patients, health professionals, institutions, and the State. It also examines the evolution of health policies, health care systems, preventive practices, and societal responses to epidemics, public health crises, and other challenges that have shaped population development.

In addition, it promotes the critical analysis of health inequalities and the historical determinants that have influenced the unequal distribution of risks, resources, and opportunities among different social groups.