Community of peace : performing geographies of ecological dignity in Colombia

Author / Creator

Courtheyn, Christopher, author

Available as

Online

Summary

"This is an ethnography of the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartadó, Colombia. Achieving peace is often thought about in terms of military operations or state negotiations, as in the recent peac...

"This is an ethnography of the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartadó, Colombia. Achieving peace is often thought about in terms of military operations or state negotiations, as in the recent peace process between the Colombian government and FARC guerrillas. Yet, it also happens at the grassroots level where communities envision and create peace. The San Jose de Apartadó Peace Community of small-scale farmers has not waited for a top-down peace treaty to be imposed. Instead, they have actively resisted forced displacement and co-optation by guerrillas, army soldiers, and paramilitaries for two decades in Colombia's war-torn Urabá region. San Jose's peace through autonomy reflects an alternative to traditional modes of politics practiced through electoral representation and armed struggle. Courtheyn illustrates how the Peace Community's food sovereignty practices and performance of memory produce an emancipatory politics, consistent with autonomist social movements across Latin America, that unveils and counters racism to produce an anti-colonial, radical peace of ecological dignity through trans-community solidarity"--Provided by publisher.

Show More