International Workshop
Contested Public Policies: Multiculturalism and the Governance of Education, Health, and Territory in Argentina and Latin America
Dates: 28–29 August 2025
Venue: Fundación COPAIPA (Zuviría 291, 4th floor, Coworking Room), Salta, Argentina
The workshop will be run in Spanish.
Full program available here (in Spanish).
Register here to attend (limited space).
ETHNICGOODS, a project of the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI), and the Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades (ICSOH-CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Salta) are pleased to announce an international workshop exploring how multiculturalism has reshaped public policy in Latin America. The workshop will be held in Spanish.
Over the past decades, many Latin American governments have adopted constitutional and policy reforms recognising the collective rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples—ranging from land titling and bilingual intercultural education to culturally adapted healthcare. Yet beyond official rhetoric, how have these reforms actually been implemented, and with what political and social consequences?
This workshop brings together leading scholars from Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, the United States, and Europe to examine the “multicultural turn” through the lens of three key policy domains:
- Education – from the introduction of Indigenous languages to intercultural higher education initiatives.
- Health – incorporating Indigenous medical knowledge into public health systems.
- Territory – legal recognition and governance of Indigenous communal lands.
Participants will present comparative and case-study research on how these policies are adopted, adapted, resisted, or transformed in practice. The discussions will place Argentina’s experience in a broader Latin American and global context, addressing questions such as:
- How do multicultural reforms vary across policy fields and regions?
- Under what conditions have they improved material conditions for targeted communities?
- When and why have they sparked new conflicts or backlash?
Coordinators:
- Dr. Guillermo Wilde (ICSOH-CONICET, UNSa, Argentina)
- Dr. Matthias vom Hau (IBEI, Barcelona, Spain)
Confirmed speakers include:
Walter Delrío, Diego Escolar, Tulia Faletti, Verónica Figueroa Huencho, Mónica Flores Klarik, Silvia Hirsch, Gloria Mancinelli, Paula Milana, Fabio Mura, Johannes Neurath, Macarena Ossola.
Funding and organization:
This workshop is co-organized by ETHNICGOODS, a project of the Barcelona Institute for International Studies (IBEI), and the Institute for Research in Social Sciences and Humanities (ICSOH-CONICET), National University of Salta (UNSa).
The Deliberative Council of the Municipality of Salta has declared this workshop of Municipal Interest, and the Chamber of Deputies of the Province of Salta has declared it of Provincial Interest.
As part of the European ETHNICGOODS project, this workshop has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement number 864333).
Program:
Full program available here (in Spanish).
Registration:
Register here to attend (limited space).
