Refusing to Cooperate with Armed GroupsCivilian Agency and Civilian Noncooperation in Armed Conflicts

Abstract

AbstractConflict scholars have increasingly stressed the importance of taking civilian agency seriously for understanding how conflicts operate on the ground and the social legacies they leave behind. Among the different expressions of civilian agency that this scholarship has studied, instances in which civilians refuse to collaborate with armed groups have captured particular attention. While this development is to be praised, the proliferation of neighboring terms (e.g., “voice,” “autonomy,” “civil action,” “oppositional agency,” “resilience,” and “resistance”) menaces the further progression of this intellectually stimulating and policy relevant field of inquiry. In dialogue with the growing literature on civilian agency, and drawing on an established literature on concept formation, I propose civilian noncooperation as the root concept to capture these instances and specify its meaning by identifying both necessary and accompanying attributes. I discuss the advantages of this concept and assess it vis á vis alternative terms and conceptualizations. Finally, I illustrate how these conceptual foundations provide a more solid basis for empirical research by introducing a descriptive typology and a database of civilian noncooperation campaigns in the Colombian civil war. Research on noncooperation holds great potential to improving existing theories of conflict, as well as to inform crucial policy debates, including the protection of civilians, peace-building, and post-conflict reconstruction. Conceptual rigor is central to fulfilling this potential.