The conflicts and dialogues among techno-developmental, ecological, and indigenous paradigms in a globalized modernity: A case study of the U'wa people's resistance against oil development in Colombia

The literature regarding indigenous eco-politics often provides only a partial explanation about interactions among indigenous peoples, environmental NGOs, and players of resource extraction activities. The dissertation argues that previous studies often fossilize indigenous people in time and space by treating them and their worldviews as static. Against this background, the dissertation draws on paradigm analysis and demonstrates how this approach can help tease out the dynamism and complexity inherent to the interactions between paradigm actors, thus helping us reanalyze indigenous peoples and their paradigms as dynamic and evolving venues for creative possibilities.;Extensive literature review and field observation are utilized to examine the case study of interactions among the U'wa, environmental NGOs, Occidental Petroleum, Ecopetrol, and the Colombian government. The case study reveals that oil development activities have heralded sharp conflicts among various paradigm actors.;It shows how such conflicts and ensuing dialogues among paradigm actors have led to paradigm changes over time and across scales of organization. We find that the U'wa indigenous paradigm poses a legal, political, and cultural challenge to the techno-developmental paradigm of oil development. We find further that paradigm conflicts are both opportunities and challenges for the U'wa to engage with the modern legal system of Colombia.;The case study also reveals that complementarities between paradigms are useful starting points for coalitions between the U'wa and environmental NGOs. The ability to cross scales of socio-political organization enabled by modern communication technologies has helped the U'wa and environmental NGOs to successfully challenge the dominant paradigm and its resource extraction activities. However, it also shows that additional political conditions are necessary for successful coalitions between two actors. The case study demonstrates that the U'wa's contemporary reality denies a static image. Therefore, the case study suggests that conventional understanding of the U'wa people and their indigenous paradigm should be re-evaluated.;In conclusion, we find that interactions among different paradigm actors are multi-dimensional, dynamic, and complex in character. As economic and political circumstances change, so do practices of each paradigm holder, where the paradigms themselves become dynamic and malleable rather than remaining static. Thus, we need to constantly reanalyze and decode paradigms in order to capture the dynamism and fully grasp contemporary indigenous eco-politics.