This project focuses on the role of participatory research in enhancing collaboration between civil society, communities and government in response to non-war violences. It will look at violences exacerbated by organised crime. UN Resolution A/RES/73/338 and SDG16 acknowledge the global rise in violence outside of war contexts, recognizing that organised crime can aggravate existing societal violence and corrupt the states that are supposed to respond. UN agencies call for civil society to play a lead role, but there is little clarity on how civil society can engage effectively with states subject to organised crime, on the one hand, while connecting with communities disrupted by violence, on the other, jeopardizing the trust necessary for collaboration. The Network will contribute by asking: how can academics partner with civil society to develop forms of research that enhance civil society-government-communities collaboration in response to non-war violences, especially when affected by organised crime? The primary output will be a Guide to Participatory Research for Effective Collaboration in Response to Non-War Violences, aimed at civil society organisations (CSOs) looking to engage with state and communities affected by organised crime, alongside a series of academic articles in Spanish and English highlighting arts and humanities insights on such topics as the role of churches, legal strategies and arts-based forms of research, as well as issues around community representation.
After the optimism of democratization since the 1980s, serious doubts are emerging about the direction taken by states across the world. Some of those doubts concern democratic backsliding in countries in Hungary and Poland, or the challenge posed by insurgencies and civil war in “failed states” like Somalia or Afghanistan. A second set of concerns relate to the levels of corruption and complicity in criminal business in states across the world, which has led to even European states like the Netherlands being dubbed “narco-states”. The proposed ESRC project aims to develop a new conceptual toolkit to understand better this second direction, and to gauge possibilities for correcting it. We will do so through conducting systematic on-the-ground research in the emblematic case of Mexico: an OECD state that in recent years has become notorious as a host for organised crime. Refining conceptual frameworks derived from previous research, the project will seek to identify perverse configurations of power, especially at the interface between legal and illegal business and government, making for forms of social harm including violence and environmental damage; and to gauge the traction of a wide range of attempts from within and beyond institutions to mitigate the harm and particularly to address the perversities in bids for less damaging configurations of power.