The Spatial Dimension of Insurgent-Civilian Relations: Routinised Insurgent Space

Project Information

FOCRIS

Grant agreement ID: 101024078

DOI

10.3030/101024078

Project closed

EC signature date 18 July 2021

Start date 15 November 2021

End date 14 November 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 187 572,48

EU contribution

€ 187 572,48

Coordinated by

WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FOCRIS (The Spatial Dimension of Insurgent-Civilian Relations: Routinised Insurgent Space)

Reporting period: 2021-11-15 to 2023-11-14

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Insurgent movements can only survive and conduct armed campaigns with a degree of popular support. But for civilians, supporting insurgent groups is usually both dangerous and often a very dynamic process. Support often varies locally; movements often enjoy support in certain neighbourhoods or valleys and little or no support in adjacent ones. Some movements enjoy strong support in the cities and little support in the countryside and vice versa. FOCRIS took two well established cases of urban (M-19) and rural (PKK) insurgencies to try and unravel this variation in patterns of support.

Primarily, FOCRIS established that the traditional categorisation of urban and/or rural movements, is an unsatisfactory method to identify the reasons behind support for armed movements. Factors such as local past histories of mobilisation, state violence, decisions and behaviour of local (not overall) elements of movements, changing targets and patterns of violence, ideological rigidity, the presence/absence of other movements and state organisations, but most importantly the degree of rebel governance established by the movements in local communities were key to understanding why insurgent groups obtained and maintained support.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The first months concentrated on a comprehensive systematic literature review, in both theoretical fields and empirical ones. The next step for FOCRIS was a systematic coding of PKK-adjacent publications (Kurdistan Report) and PKK publications Serxwebûn (134 issues) and Berxwedan (83 issues). Data relevant to FOCRIS was extracted and coded with the support of a research assistant. Similar efforts were conducted with a more diverse range of primary sources in the Colombian case.
Fieldwork in the initial part of the project was limited by COVID restrictions.
Nevertheless, a period of fieldwork was successfully conducted in late 2023 in Colombia, in the cities of Cali and Bogota. I renewed my existing contacts and network with the M-19 and in Cali further expanded it. In short, through this albeit brief period of fieldwork, I have an abundance of primary data, totalling 15,5 hours of audio data, and access to movement archives that are not publicly available. In the Kurdish case, I conducted eight interviews in Germany with people who had experienced the conflict in Kurdistan either as members of the PKK or victims of state violence and repression. In total I conducted 16 interviews & focus groups.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

In terms of Impact, FOCRIS led to the creation of an ongoing academic network, bringing together scholars and academics in the fields of social movements, civil wars and rebel governance and social geography. This network organised two workshops, and has plans for further academic meetings in 2024. I also organised a further workshop on Contentious Politics in Kurdish Studies: Land, Nature, and Infrastructure, bringing the theoretical developments back generated in FOCRIS back to the Kurdish Studies field.
FOCRIS resulted in three publications in high ranking peer reviewed journals already published, a confirmed special issue which I will co-edit as well as contributong an original article summarising FOCRIS most important findings. Additionally, a further special issue focusing on land in Kurdish politics is under review, which I would again co-edit and contribute a research article.

Original sketch by Afranio Parra, with permission of Movimiento Cultural la Gaitana