Imaginación geográfica y procesos de resignificación del río Magdalena, Colombia

Abstract

Given its strategic role for trade and the territorial articulation of the country, the Magdalena River has been one of the most important elements of Colombia’s imagined geography. Furthermore, since the last decades of the last century, it has also been associated with violence and armed conflict. Based on the concept of geographical imagination, we interpret the different assessments of this river as part of a heterogeneous social field linked to different phases of development. We combine the relational theory of space and ethnographic work to question the hegemonic and unidirectional character of negative images about the Magdalena River and maintain that the geographical imagination is produced in disputed areas that give meaning to this geography of power.