Local participation at stake: between emancipatory goals and co-option strategies. The case of territorially focused development programs in Colombia

Abstract

Objective/Context: We examine how participatory peacebuilding projects create emancipatory outcomes by investigating the implementation of Territorially Focused Development Programs (Programas de Desarrollo con Enfoque Territorial, PDETs), one of the centerpieces of the Colombian peace process. We define “emancipatory outcomes” as allocations of decision-making power (e.g., control over budgets, project priorities) and/or material benefits (e.g., new infrastructure, public goods) to marginalized groups in society. Methodology: The article is based on a combination of ethnographic peace research and semi-structured interviews with key government and civil actors involved in the design and implementation of the PDETs both at the national and local levels. We focus on the PDET of the department of Chocó, where both authors conducted ethnographic work during the design and implementation of the peace program between January 2018 and March 2020. Conclusions: We argue that the emancipatory outcomes of a participatory project are never fixed in advance: the degree to which such projects serve bottom-up, emancipatory goals rather than top-down state expansion are contingent on the outcomes of contestation and cooperation processes between actors within and outside the state. Originality: Critical scholarship tends to understand participatory peacebuilding programs as top-down programs to co-opt grassroots actors and expand the reach of the state rather than emancipatory projects that create real shifts in existing political settlements. Our contribution lies in the study of the dynamics of these peace processes to identify the potential spaces they open for emancipatory goals.