Chocolate, Politics and Peace-Building: An Ethnography of the Peace Community of San Jos? de Apartad?, Colombia [Paperback]

This book tells the story of the Peace Community of San Jos? de Apartad?, an emblematic grassroots social movement of peasant farmers, who unusually declared themselves neutral to Colombias internal armed conflict, in the north-west region of Urab?. It reveals two core narratives in the Communitys collective identity, which Burnyeat calls the radical and the organic narratives. These refer to the historically-constituted interpretative frameworks according to which they perceive respectively the Colombian state, and their relationship with their natural and social environments. Together, these two narratives form an Alternative Community collective identity, comprising a distinctive conception of grassroots peace-building. This study, centered on the Communitys socio-economic cacao-farming project, offers an innovative way of approaching victims organizations and social movements through critical, post-modern politics and anthropology. It will become essential reading toLatin American ethnographers and historians, and all interested in conflict resolution and transitional justice.

Read the author's blog drawing on the book here: 

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/latamcaribbean/2018/06/07/colombias-unsung-heroes/

1. Introduction: The Chocolate-Politics Continuum.- 2. The Roots: Of Cooperatives and Conflict.- 3. The Founding of the Peace Community.- 4. The Cultural Change of 'Organisation'.- 5. The Genealogy of the Rupture 1997-2005.- 6. Differentiating between Santos and Uribe.- 7. Practices of Production.- 8. The Elements of the Organic Narrative.- 9. Conclusion: An 'Alternative Community' as Positive Peace-Building?.

The book as a whole remains a fascinating and well-researched exploration of resistance against terrible odds. Thoughtful and well documented, it is an indispensable addition to tl£*