Humanitarian activist citizens: the emergence of a ‘victim’ political subjectivity in Colombia

ABSTRACT

This article develops the concept of ‘humanitarian activist citizenship’ to analyse the political work of grassroots organisations representing groups and individuals displaced during Colombia’s civil conflict. In Colombia, the armed conflict has led to the forced migration of around 8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs). In response, self-identified IDPs and other victims of violence have formed organisations and staged protests to claim collective rights. This article emerges out of a narrative analysis of interviews conducted with members of IDP grassroots organisations in Bogotá between 2017 and 2018. Building on insights from the ‘acts of citizenship’ literature, it argues that the political work of these organisations must be understood as a form of ‘humanitarian activist citizenship’, through which groups and individuals victimised by violence in Colombia mobilise humanitarian policies and discourses to redefine the relations that exist between them and the state.

KEYWORDS:

• Humanitarianism
• Colombia
• internal displacement
• acts of citizenship
• grassroots organisations

Acknowledgments

This article would not be possible without all the members of the IDP and victim organisations who shared their thoughts and details of their lives with me. I also owe Dr Paolo Novak my thanks for his invaluable support and detailed comments on the ideas developed in the paper. I am also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers and to the editors of Citizenship Studies for their insightful feedback. Finally, my thanks go to Dr Shona Macleod, and Dr Camilo Chiappe Bejar for their advice on a draft version of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karen Schouw Iversen

Dr. Karen Schouw Iversen is a Lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London. She has previously held posts at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Birmingham, and SOAS, University of London. Her work focuses on activism and forced migration in Colombia.