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Young People’S Rural Quality of Life in the Colombian Andes: A Qualitative Study Using Triangulation

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Qualitative Studies in Quality of Life

Part of the book series: Social Indicators Research Series ((SINS,volume 55))

Abstract

This chapter aims at reflecting about the rural quality of life of young people living in the heights of the Colombian Andes. It is based upon the results of a research study entitled “Social Construction of Rural Young people in the Colombian Andean Zone”. The text centers around two main axes as a response to the methodological fundamentals of the research that gives birth to it: the quality of life , in the particular case of rural young people immersed in this context, and the research methods and techniques used in its approach. With reference to the quality of life, it aims at establishing the relationship among the rural young people’s perceptions and their socio-cultural context , their values and their position in life. The Rural Quality of Life category is assumed with its psycho-social connotations resulting from the evaluations young people have about their experiences, present situation and general life visions, which transcend the traditional concept of social welfare. With reference to the methodology, the chapter reflects on the practical importance of qualitative research methods used to approach the study of the Rural Quality of Life of the young peoples in the context of this study; besides, it emphasizes the use of triangulation as a methodological strategy whose application enriches the research process and increases the validity of the results.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Colombian Rural Andean Zone is considered as that one consisting of the high-mountains and traditional-farming production sectors located in the Colombian Andean mass of mountains. The term high-mountain refers to those sectors over 2,700 m above sea level, and the traditional farming production to that area derived from the passive and inadequate adoption of the agrarian model of the Green Revolution, which is very different from the industrialized commercial production resulting from the active adoption of this method.

  2. 2.

    The Sectorial Policies with an intentionality towards young people are assumed in this paper as those formulated from 1950 in the Latin American countries, which without explicitating their goals towards this population sector, display a clear intention, by the State, to satisfy what its agents consider young people needs or to solve societal problems which have been considered as related to the young people action.

  3. 3.

    The results from these research studies can be consulted in the following texts: “Young people Policies in Latin America: evaluation and reformulation” (Bango 2000), with the bases for the formulation of these policies in the context of regional challenges and opportunities at the beginning of the XXI century; “Young people in Latin America. Trends and urgencies” (Hopenhayn et al. 2004) with a diagnosis of the Young people situation through the review of young people policies in Latin America, taking as a reference the approaches on rights and integral citizenship, and in “State of the art of research on rural young people in Latin America” (Kessler 2005), where the approaches, themes and conclusions from the research studies carried out in Latin America are described.

  4. 4.

    According to the Center for Research and Popular Education (CINEP), one of the most important research centers in Colombia, between August 14, 2006 and June 16, 2007, the so-called “false positives” happened in 22 states of the 32 which form the country. Meta was the most affected state: “From this part of the country we knew about 24 cases with 39 victims, authored by troops belonging to the12 Mobile Brigade, 21 Vargas Battalion, 4 Mobile Brigade andJosé Joaquín París Battalion of the National Army (CINEP 2007: 1). Recently, Todd Howland, agent of the High Commissioner’s Office for Human Rights of the United Nations in Bogota stated that “We did not receive information about this type of violation in 2012, but the Public Prosecutor’s Office has information about almost 5,000 victims of this phenomenon; there are antecedents of several years and there are very few sentences at present. Then, it is important that Colombia do more with reference to this problem of false positives” (CINEP 2013, p. 7).

  5. 5.

    The Continental Spaces are big regions with arcifinious or natural limits that are shared by various countries.They are characterized by being different and stable, not only with reference to their physical, topographic, ecological and landscape configurations, but also with reference to the idiosyncrasy of every human group inhabiting the region.The continental spaces in South America are as follows: Amazonia, Orinoquia, Marabina Basin, Andean Mass, Caribbean Space, Pacific Space, Brazilian Massif, Chaco-Pampa and Patagonia Cone (Mendoza 2000, p. 40).

  6. 6.

    The Colombian continental spaces are as follows: Amazonia, Orinoquia, Marabina Basin, Andean Mass, Caribbean Space and Pacific Space (Mendoza 2000, p. 42).

  7. 7.

    The Chibcha culture refers to the peoples existing in the Nueva Granada in the XVI century, at the arrival of Spaniards. The most important of those peoples were Chibcha-Carib and Chibcha; the latter settling what it is today Cundinamarca, Boyacá, Western Atrato, Cauca and Central-Oriental Nariño. The predominant language was the one distinguished by Spaniards as the Muisca Language or Mosca, with as many dialects as linguistic families (Ariza 1992, p. 75).

  8. 8.

    The Rome Circle or Rome Club promotes in Europe the most specific philosophical-ideological debate about human quality through Peccei (1976), who defines the quintessential objective of humankind as “to perfect the quality of the human person”; thus approximating the idea of “quality” to the capacity of the population and to human renovation, presented as collective challenges or aspirations. For Peccei, the divulgation of the information concerning the improvement oflife conditions on Earth is one of the most essential topics, thus proposing a periodical publication to be entitled “Information to the citizens of the world” (Casas, 1999).

  9. 9.

    In “the rural matter”, bio-spaces are formed by relatively homogeneous zones such as “ecosystems, uncultivated lands, hydrographic basins, historical-cultural regions, ethnic territories and indigenous reservations, farming reservation zones, natural parks, provinces, associated municipalities and neighborhoods- small villages”, while in the city, neighborhoods, localities or zones, diverse circuits, districts and metropolitan and sub-urban areas are founded“ (Fals Borda 2000, p. 9).

  10. 10.

    SISBEN. Information system that permits one to identify, classify and select the people and the families who live in poverty, with the aim to let them have access to subsidies and other benefits provided by the Government. The data were supplied by the State Office of SISBEN, at the Office of Planning of the State of Cundinamarca, by its Coordinator Engineer José Delgado on August 1, 2007.

  11. 11.

    (H/Ed:26/JoTa). This is the coding used in this chapter which accompanies the narrations from now on. [H or M] refers to the informant’s sex, thus, H: male, M: female; [Ed:26] is the age of the informant, in this case, 26 years; [Jo] means young and [T] means work or the informant’s activity, thus: E: student, Ta: farm worker, Tc: commercial worker, Tm: mine worker, and Th: home worker.

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  1. MEN. Colciencias, Bogotá, Colombia

    Antonio José López López

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  1. Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora and Universidad de Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Graciela Tonon

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López López, A. (2015). Young People’S Rural Quality of Life in the Colombian Andes: A Qualitative Study Using Triangulation. In: Tonon, G. (eds) Qualitative Studies in Quality of Life. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 55. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13779-7_9

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