Estado, sociedad civil y gobernanza local en contextos violentos. Algunos temas para una agenda de investigación: The State, civil society, and local governance in violent contexts. An outline of issues for the a research agenda

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

As an introduction to the thematic section and on the basis of three concrete experiences, this article suggests a series of critical issues for the construction of a research agenda related to the conflictive coexistence of the State and various actors of civil society, armed and non-armed. The background against which these reflections are put forward are several scenarios marked by the use of violence as a tool for exercising power over a territory and collective. The experiences presented describe three of those scenarios and moments: a lynching in the Peruvian city of Ilave in 2004, the electoral triumph in 2011 of a leftist candidate in a Colombian city controlled by paramilitarism, and the recent
disappearance of 43 students in Ayotzinapa, México, in 2014. The case of the lynchings offers the challenge of examining local juridical practices that may lead to the exercise of “taking justice into one’s own hands”. For the Colombian case, these local practices— going beyond “community justice”—have basically rested in the hands of armed actors, thus offering important challenges to the analysis of the legacies of these practices in a post-conflict scenario. This second case also leads to reflection regarding the possibilities of resistance and mechanisms of accountability under the control of armed actors. Finally, the third case raises the question of open or hidden cooperation between State and non- State actors in zones of conflict, especially under the control of organized crime networks. To the degree that it is possible to examine aspects that require greater attention in understanding the phenomenon, it would be equally possible to define lines of intervention that make it possible to overcome the challenges that scenarios such as the post-conflict scenario pose, in the Colombian case, in terms of peaceful coexistence and the effective
realization of citizenship.
Original languageSpanish
Article number1
Pages (from-to)25-38
Number of pages248
JournalRevista Colombiana de Sociología
Volume38
Issue number1
StatePublished - 2015

Cite this