From local turn to space-relational analysis: Participatory peacebuilding in a Colombian borderland

Abstract

This paper offers a space-relational extension to the local turn in peace studies. We argue that unflattening the local in research on peace and conflict has the potential to explain why multi-modal participatory peacebuilding produces tensions, disappointments, and adaptations across a volatile and fluid state-society interface. Our analysis focuses on three space-relational dimensions: contested claims to territorial representation; the scalar organisation of the state; and the dynamics of extensive uneven urbanisation in peripheral regions. Catatumbo, a conflict-affected borderland region of Colombia, constitutes the empirical focus of our study, which covers both the protracted negotiations leading to the 2016 national peace agreement and its ongoing fraught implementation. Drawing on mixed-methods research, our findings show that despite vibrant forms of pro-peace participation, a regional consensus failed to emerge amidst ongoing violence, unfulfilled state promises and new threats to the economy and environment. Yet, grassroots peacebuilding continues to be reinvented and includes innovative forms of socio-territorial dialogue. Concluding remarks reflect on opportunities to broaden space-relational analysis of socially and geographically complex peacebuilding efforts across and beyond Colombia.