Discourses and practices of local governance in conflict-ridden societies. Informal peacebuilding mechanisms, state formation and peripherization in Mexico and Kurdistan

Keywords: Informal peacebuilding mechanisms, autonomous territories, self-government practices, collective rights, Chiapas, Kurdistan
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 25

Abstract

The issue raised here investigates forms of political organization of subaltern
social movements whose practices serve as informal mechanisms for peacebuilding. The
proposal compares local movements that challenge dominant forms of representative and
liberal democracy. Mainly, inclusive models of grassroots democracy in Mexico and
Kurdistan are presented here as alternative forms of global governance, which emerge in
contexts prone to violence and outside of formal peace initiatives. To this end, this work
delves into the political principles of the Kurdish autonomic project instituted in northern
Syria and some indigenous autonomy processes in Mexico, particularly the zapatista
movement in Chiapas. Both cases present historical and conjunctural elements that validate
their comparison. Chiapas and Western Kurdistan have gone through historical processes of
peripherization that explain the causes of structural violence they are confronting. Also,
Mexico and Syria are facing a security crisis due to the wars that their governments seize
against non-state actors and paramilitary forces challenging state’s sovereignty. Finally, in
the indigenous territories of the two countries, old and new forms of violence converge
producing the violation of human rights, growing social vulnerability and a permanent state
of existential threat. The work argues that despite this conflict-ridden background,
autonomies stand out as positive responses to violence as a result of the institutionalization
of self-government practices. Understandings of security and justice as collective rights are
pivotal in peacebuilding and governance efforts within the autonomous territories which act
as containment dikes for violence