Maria Elisa Balen

Maria Elisa Balen is interested in the sociology of money, critical accounting, perspectives of governance and the sociology of knowledge. In the past she has worked in various social programs with an emphasis in education including a transition program for youths to go back into school, a rural libraries network, and a program to promote the engagement of students with public policy. In her PhD she researched the implications of a conditional cash transfer program in Colombia, analyzing techniques and experiences surrounding information production, money/finance, women’s empowerment and changing modes of politics. She has been active in discussions around the role of conditional cash transfer programs in changing social protection systems in various scenarios including the Second ISA Forum of Sociology in Buenos Aires (2012) and the Colombian XI National Sociology Congress in Medellín (2014), having recently co-authored an article on the subject entitled “Policy Transfer: an invitation to revisit the work of Latour, Star and Marres” (2015). She holds a bachelor degree in History from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and an MSc and PhD in Sociology from the University of Bristol. In her present capacity as an associate researcher of the Grupo de Protección Social at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, she is carrying out a comparative study of mobile banking regulation in Bolivia and Colombia.

 Maria Elisa Balen es una historiadora (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) y doctora en Sociología (Universidad de Bristol, Reino Unido), interesada en la perspectiva temporal de la acción en el presente. Su trabajo reciente sobre las transformaciones -en términos de las perspectivas de gobierno y el despliegue de infraestructuras financieras- asociadas a los programas de transferencias monetarias de gobierno a personas en América Latina incluye Money from the Government in Latin America: Conditional cash transfers and rural lives (2019, co-editado con Martin Fotta) y “Policy translation: an invitation to revisit the work of Latour, Star and Marres” (2005, co-escrito con Cristian Leyton). Actualmente es profesora del Departamento de Sociología de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia y hace parte de redes como el Instituto de la Moneda, Tecnología e Inclusión Financiera (IMTFI) y de la Red de Alternativas Programáticas UN, para la cual está trabajando en el tema de financiarización y flujos de valor, específicamente en lo que respecta a monedas complementarias. Actualmente, investiga las dinámicas de endeudamiento y redes de cuidado en poblaciones afectadas por riesgo ambiental en Mocoa, Putumayo.

 http://www.humanas.unal.edu.co/2017/docentes/maria-elisa-balen/perfil