This book explores distinct forms of civil resistance in situations of violent conflict in cases across Latin America, drawing important lessons learned for nonviolent struggles in the region and beyond. The authors analyse campaigns against armed actors in situations of internal armed conflict, against private sector companies that seek to exploit natural resources, and against the state in defence of housing rights, to cite only some scenarios of violent conflict in which people in Latin America have organized to resist imposition by powerful actors and/or confront violence and oppression. Each of the nine cases studied looks at the violent context in which civil resistance took place, its modality, its results and the factors that influenced these, as well as the challenges faced, offering useful insights for scholars and practitioners alike.
This book is the product of a joint research project between Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) Ecuador and the University of La Salle in Bogotá, Colombia, which initiated in 2015. This project built on our previous findings and experience in research on civil resistance in contexts of armed conflict. We thank FLACSO Ecuador and the University of La Salle for their generous support, which allowed us to conduct fieldwork for our respective chapters and present draft papers in academic conferences. After months of discussion among ourselves and potential contributors, the book proposal crystallized in early 2017 and was discussed with Palgrave Macmillan and some contributors during the International Studies Association conference in Baltimore that year. From then on, we closely worked with all the contributors to bring this volume to a successful completion. We are grateful to all our contributors for their commitment and collaboration throughout the process, without which this book would not have been possible.
