The Politics of Exhaustion: Immigration Control in the British-French Border Zone

Within a climate of growing anti-immigration and populist forces gaining traction across Europe, and in response to the increased number of prospective asylum seekers arriving in Europe, recent years have seen the continued hardening of borders and a disconcerting evolution of new forms of immigration control measures utilised by states. Based on extensive field research carried out amongst displaced people in Europe in 2016-2019, this article highlights the way in which individuals in northern France are finding themselves trapped in a violent border zone, unable to move forward whilst having no obvious alternative way out of their predicament. The article seeks to illustrate the violent dynamics inherent in the immigration control measures in this border zone, characterised by both direct physical violence as well as banalised and structural forms of violence, including state neglect through the denial of services and care. The author suggests that the raft of violent measures and micro practices authorities resort to in the French-British border zone could be understood as constituting one of the latest tools for European border control and obstruction of the access to asylum procedures; a Politics of Exhaustion

Global social fascism: violence, law and twenty-first century plunder

The intellectual authors of neoliberalism were aware of the lethal implications of what they advocated. For ‘the market’ to work, the state was to refuse protection to those unable to secure their subsistence, while dissidents were to be repressed. What has received less attention is how deadly neoliberal reforms increasing come wrapped in social, legal and humanistic rhetoric. We see this not only in ‘social’ and ‘legal’ rationales for tearing away safety nets in Europe’s former social democratic heartlands, but also in the ‘pro-poor’ emphasis of contemporary development discourse. This includes contexts where colonial legacies have facilitated extreme armed violence in service of corporate plunder. To expose these dynamics, I juxtapose the everyday violence of austerity in Britain with neoliberal restructuring in Colombia. The latter is instructive precisely because, in tandem with widespread state-backed terror, Colombia has held fast to the language and institutions of liberal democracy. It has, as a result, prefigured the subtle authoritarian tendencies now increasingly prominent in European states. The reconceptualization of law, rights and social policy that has accompanied neoliberal globalization is deeply fascistic. Authoritarian state power is harnessed to the power of transnational capital, often accompanied by nationalistic and racist ideologies that legitimize refusal of protection and repression, enabling spiraling inequality. Nevertheless, extending Boaventura de Sousa Santos’s discussion of ‘social fascism’, I suggest that widespread appeal to the ‘social’ benefits and ‘legal necessity’ of lethal economic policies marks a significant and Orwellian shift. Not only are democratic forces suppressed: the very meanings of democracy, rights, law and ethics are being reshaped, drastically inhibiting means of challenging corporate power

Microdynamics of Illegitimacy and Complex Urban Violence in Medellin, Colombia

For most of the past 25 years, Medellin, Colombia, has been an extreme case of complex, urban violence, involving not just drug cartels and state security forces, but also street gangs, urban guerrillas, community militias, paramilitaries, and other nonstate armed actors who have controlled micro-territories in the city's densely populated slums in ever-shifting alliances. Before 2002, Medellin's homicide rate was among the highest in the world, but after the guerrillas and militias were defeated in 2003, a major paramilitary alliance disarmed and a period of peace known as the "Medellin Miracle" began. Policy makers facing complex violence elsewhere were interested in finding out how that had happened so quickly. The research presented here is a case study of violence in Medellin over five periods since 1984 and at two levels of analysis: the city as a whole, and a sector called Caicedo La Sierra. The objectives were to describe and explain the patterns of violence, and determine whether legitimacy played any role, as the literature on social stability suggested it might. Multilevel, multidimensional frameworks for violence and legitimacy were developed to organize data collection and analysis. The study found that most decreases in violence at all levels of analysis were explained by increases in territorial control. Increases in collective (organized) violence resulted from a process of "illegitimation," in which an intolerably unpredictable living environment sparked internal opposition to local rulers and raised the costs of territorial control, increasing their vulnerability to rivals. As this violence weakened social order and the rule of law, interpersonal-communal (unorganized) violence increased. Over time, the "true believers" in armed political and social movements became marginalized or corrupted; most organized violence today is motivated by money. These findings imply that state actors, facing resurgent violence, can keep their tenuous control over the hillside slums (and other "ungoverned" areas) if they can avoid illegitimizing themselves. Their priority, therefore, should be to establish a tolerable, predictable daily living environment for local residents and businesses: other anti-violence programs will fail without strong, permanent, and respectful governance structures

Invisible power and visible everyday resistance in the violent Colombian Pacific

This article presents an action research process which opened up dialogues about power, citizenship and agency among social activists and peacebuilding groups in the violent context of urban Buenaventura, Colombia. Adopting a situated, micro-level, engaged action research approach, the process reached beyond what western power theory calls ‘visible’ and ‘hidden’ power, to uncover rich accounts of how long-standing everyday violence, of direct, structural and symbolic kinds, shapes meanings and defines what is acceptable and possible. Insights on the myriad invisible ways in which violence inhibits, constrains or shapes perceptions and exercise of citizen agency – in short, violence-as-invisible-power – were matched by insights on the myriad ways in which social activists in the city respond to it. Such insights, brought to light by the locally embedded action research approach which specifically sought out local people’s perspectives and experience, reveal how violence-as-invisible-power re-shapes people’s subjectivity in ways that enable them collectively and individually to resist violence and build peace

Policy enactment in schools: A culture of gender (in)equality Exploring the role of the school in the transformation of youth's gender-related beliefs, expectations and interactions in 'post-conflict' Medellín

Set within a 'post-conflict' context, this research project addresses the mutual constitution between violence and the existence of unequal power in gender relations (Confortini, 2006). Hereby, I contrast Colombia's legislature and policy on addressing gender equality in the education system with opinions and perceptions of local policy stakeholders, educational agents and students in Medellín. The main objective is to explore how youth's gender-relatedbeliefs, expectations and interactions can be transformed through a school culture that enacts education policies on gender equality in the complex context of gendered experiences in Medellín. Centred around two case studies, this research is guided by the use of mostly qualitative methods like in-depth interviews, focus group discussions initiated by a Likert-scale activity and photo-elicitation, and a complimentary quantitative questionnaire. I start with positioning youth's heterogeneous gendered experiences as embedded in a religious and machismo culture, in response to consequences of armed conflict, displacement and drug trafficking, and at the intersection with class, race and sexuality. Then, I analyse what in revision of Colombia's legislature could easily be labelled a "heaven for gender equality", uncovering how education policies travel into the reality of secondary schools. Lastly, I argue that human rights rhetoric in schools is not sufficient to provide young people with the necessary ability to transform their gender-related beliefs, expectations and interactions. In order to ensure that youth are empowered to challenge deeply-rooted gender norms, education policies, programmes and pedagogical projects need to be more context-specific and inclusive. This ties in with recent theorising on empowering youth as agents for change in their specific context. The policy implication is that we need to disrupt hierarchical structures between state and school, programme and educator, and teacher and student in Medellín

Feminist Conversations on Peace

EPUB and EPDF available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. What is feminist peace? How can we advocate for peace from patriarchy? What do women, globally, advocate for when they use the term 'peace'? This edited collection brings together conversations across borders and boundaries to explore plural, intersectional and interdisciplinary concepts of feminist peace. The book includes contributions from a geographically diverse range of scholars, judges, practitioners and activists, and the chapters cut across themes of movement building and resistance and explore the limits of institutionalized peacebuilding. The chapters deal with a range of issues, such as environmental degradation, militarization, online violence and arms spending. Offering a resource to advance theoretical development and to advocate for policy change, this book transcends traditional approaches to the study of peace and security and embraces diverse voices and perspectives which are absent in both academic and policy spaces

Human Rights and the War on Terror: Complete 2005 - 2007 Topical Research Digest

“9/11 changed everything.” Not really. In fact, there has been far more continuity than change over the past six years in both international and domestic politics. Nonetheless, human rights often have been harmed—although not by terrorism but by “the war on terror.

Political transnationalism, gender and peace buliding among Colombian migrants in the UK and Spain.

PhDThe international migration of Colombians has received little attention, either at academic or policy levels. This research explores Colombian migration to Spain and the UK. Its main aim is to study the transnational political activities of Colombian migrants, in the context of the armed conflict and search for peace in Colombia, by taking a gendered perspective. The theoretical and conceptual frameworks draw from several research areas, mainly work on diasporas and transnational migration, and studies of armed conflict and peace. Given that these fields of study are rarely combined, this thesis provides an innovative conceptual approach. The current research is based on qualitative fieldwork conducted in the UK and Spain between 2005 and 2007, and comprising almost 100 interviews and participant observation. The main empirical finding is that Colombian migrants are an integral part of the political context in the home country, despite the emphasis by other studies on the polarisation, fragmentation and apolitical nature of the diaspora. Conceptually, this thesis argues for the need to de-construct political transnationalism, to account for: activities emerging from 'above' and 'below', 'individual' and 'collective' participation in formal and informal politics; and the connections between political participation in the countries of origin and settlement. Also, it shows that migrants' transnational politics varies according to gender, as well as other factors, mainly type of migration and social class. More importantly, the transnational political activities of Colombians abroad relate directly/indirectly to the armed conflict and search for peace in Colombia. Future research and policy-making should take into account the potential of this for civil society peace-building efforts, especially seeking to promote a gendered perspective

The Past in the Present . Looking Inside Collective Reincorporation of FARC-EP Ex-Members

In 2016, the Colombian government signed the peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) and aimed to reintegrate more than 13,000 ex-combatants into society based on a collective reincorporation approach. This approach promotes alternatives for social, economic and political reincorporation beyond Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) standards by valuing the ex-combatants’ legacy in conflict times. This research aims to analyse under a sociological micro-perspective the meanings, transitions, dimensions and relationships around collective reincorporation. Instead of focusing on a single dimension on reintegration, I analyse how these dimensions are present and interact in FARC-EP ex-members everyday practices. I discuss the influence that former comrades, families, surrounding communities and institutions have on the configuration of ex-combatants’ legacy, identity, social capital, concept of citizenship and agency. Based on a trans-local perspective, I use a multi-sited ethnography approach to make an in-depth analysis of the everyday life of FARC-EP ex-members and their commonalities beyond geographical boundaries in three territories in which they are collectively settled. I find that the building of relationships among FARC-EP ex-members and the use of their agency contribute in not just their reincorporation process, but also in the transformation of the social, political and economic dynamics of their surroundings. I conclude by saying that the social visibility of FARC-EP ex-members becomes an alternative to increase local agency, and a valuable strategy to break the divide between past and present trajectories. Therefore, collective reincorporation is an approach to social transformation in which FARC-EP ex-members through their collective initiatives, become visible agents of change in peacebuilding