Dancing with enemies: Emancipatory peace and the politics of reincorporation in post-accord Colombia

This thesis investigates the quest for an emancipatory peace among ex-FARC-EP insurgents in Colombia participating in reintegration programmes. The drive for emancipatory peace often conflicts with a neoliberal perspective on peace, which emphasises market-oriented solutions, entrepreneurship, a reduction of state involvement in social services delivery, and a focus on individualism. Both peacebuilding approaches co-exist in reintegration programmes, and generate a mixture of practices that absorb stakeholders’ competing agendas. This research explores the experiences of ex-insurgents as they strive to shape their own vision of peace and highlights the challenges this poses in the context of the neoliberal peace model. Drawing from his background as a former insurgent involved in reintegration, the author adopts the perspective of a militant ethnographer to examine the reintegration experiences of individuals participating in various programmes and initiatives organised by the Colombian government and international cooperation agencies. It is analysed emancipatory peace through the lens of the Sociology of Absences and Emergencies, Emancipatory Peace and Post-insurgent Political Reconversion, as well as a number of concepts deriving from a variety of theoretical frameworks such as Political Economy of Peacebuilding, Solidarity Economy and Autonomic Design. The main research question of the thesis is: How do FARC-EP’s ex-insurgents searching for the construction of an emancipatory peace engage in the project of social, economic and political reincorporation, in the context of conflicting interests and peacebuilding views? Methodologically, the research involved action research and militant ethnography to examine the social, economic and political aspects of the reincorporation strategy. After the introduction and methodology, Chapter Three examines how former insurgents shape their own emancipatory view of peace by way of a case study where ex-insurgents designed a strategy of autonomous development. It analyses the shift from a nation-based political vision of the FARC-EP during its insurgency period to a new vision based on peasant resistance and autonomy. Chapter Four examines how various groups of ex-insurgents respond to the practical challenges of reintegrating into society. It analyses the reincorporation scenarios that arise from collaborative efforts involving the state, international partners, and ex-insurgents to develop their economic initiatives. Chapter Five focuses on the political economy of reincorporation and analyses the mechanisms through which a neoliberal peacebuilding agenda is proposed, imposed, or attempts to grant the consent of the ex-insurgent population. Chapter Six examines the involvement of an ex-insurgent in electoral politics and uses the theory of post-insurgent political reconversion to propose key elements to understand this involvement: identity and sense of belonging, the insurgent and post-insurgent relationship with local society, interactions with regional elites, and partisan competitiveness. In conclusion, the author argues that the crucial debate in peacebuilding is about emancipation. This concept comes to life as communities create peace scenarios where diverse perspectives on peace collide, which results in hybrid forms of reincorporation. Though hybrid, these peacebuilding formations nevertheless incorporate an enduring search for social justice and emancipation that former rebels do not entirely abandon. He illustrates this idea through the metaphor of ‘dancing with enemies’ — the title of this thesis.