Community of Peace

Achieving peace is often thought about in terms of military operations or state negotiations. Yet it also happens at the grassroots level, where communities envision and create peace on their own. The San Jos de Apartad Peace Community of small-scale farmers has not waited for a top-down peace treaty. Instead, they have actively resisted forced displacement and co-optation by guerrillas, army soldiers, and paramilitaries for two decades in Colombias war-torn Urab region. Based on ethnographic action research over a twelve-year period, Christopher Courtheyn illuminates the communitys understandings of peace and territorial practices against ongoing assassinations and displacement. San Joss peace through autonomy reflects an alternative to traditional modes of politics practiced through electoral representation and armed struggle. Courtheyn explores the meaning of peace and territory, while also interrogating the role of race in Colombias war and the relationship between memory and peace. Amid the widespread violence of todays global crisis, <i>Community of Peace</i> illustrates San Joss rupture from the logics of colonialism and capitalism through the construction of political solidarity and communal peace.