NGOs and Memory in Colombia: The Case of Medellin

This thesis is concerned with analyzing the production of narratives of the past in different social contexts such as those to which the NGOs of Medellín have access. This thesis is organized into three chapters. The first chapter develops the theoretical framework of the thesis in which I argue the importance of the concept of institutional memory. In the second chapter, I seek to identify the origins of contemporary memory practices in Medellín. I concentrate on describing how the process of urbanization of Medellín made local memory practices very particular and noteworthy. And finally, in the third chapter, I examine a set of important institutional memory initiatives to demonstrate how neighborhood-based organizations were dispossessed of their own ways of remembering. In this chapter, I demonstrate that such practices entered into the civil society organization model promoted by NGOs and the local government.