Violence, Insecurity and Hybrid Organisational Forms: A Study in Conflict-Ridden Zones in Colombia

Abstract

We study organisational forms in conflict-ridden zones of rural Colombia and analyse the impact of violence and subjective perceptions of insecurity on the choice of organisational modes. Based on a survey of 742 rural producers in five geographical regions, we find that perceptions of insecurity and objective measures of violence are positively related with the adoption of hybrid forms of organisation in production and distribution. This result is interpreted as an adaptation on the part of peasants and landowners who associate to seek protection in a violent environment.

Acknowledgements

We thank Lee Benham, Marco Palacios, Bernardo Mueller, Pablo Spiller, Claude Menard, Hernando Zuleta, Jaime Zuluaga, Ban Chuan Cheah, Sam Malone, Darwin Cortes, ISNIE 2009 conference participants, seminar participants at Stanford University, Harvard University and Brown University, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions. All remaining mistakes are ours. We also thank Ana Cecilia Montes, Gustavo Montes, Blanca Patino, Jaime Perez and Oscar Salazar for valuable research assistance. We are indebted to the members of our local support teams, led by Constanza Kahn in Narino, Juanita Mendez in Montes de Maria, Agueda Plata in Magdalena Medio, Jorge Rangel in Meta, and Nyria Ramirez in Huila.Their cooperation in data collection and ex-post focus groups in violent regions made this research viable. We acknowledge the financial support of Colciencias and Universidad de los Andes School of Management. Veneta Andonova acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, through grant SEJ2005-03871/ECON, and the support of the Center for Latin American Studies at Brown University. The usual disclaimer applies.

Notes

^1. Market transactions are costly, and under certain conditions it is economically rational to organise transactions within firms (Coase, 1937; Williamson 1975, 1985). The trade-off between these ‘make’ or ‘buy’ extremes appears to depend on the frequency of the transactions, contractual uncertainty, and especially the degree of specificity of the assets involved (Brousseau, 1995; Riordan & Williamson, 1985; Williamson, 1985).

^2. See, for example, the work by Alston and Mueller (2009) on the impact of land conflict on land tenure.

^3. Wills-Herrera, Orozco, Forero-Pineda, Pardo, and Andonova (2011) develop a more detailed analysis of the different dimensions of subjective insecurity.

^4. Quality agreements, including labels, are one of the most frequently studied hybrid organisational form, both in agriculture and industry.See, for example, Menard (1996) and Raynaud, Sauvée and, Valceschini (2005).

^5. For robustness, calculations were replicated with homicides and displaced population of the year 2000. The results do not differ statistically.

^6. Policía Nacional. Centro de Investigaciones Criminológicas. December 2006.

^7. According to the State of the World Refugees 2006, ‘Colombia presents the highest number of internally displaced people in the western hemisphere, and the second largest displaced population in the world after Sudan. Most of the displacement is related to the country’s four-decade-long internal armed conflict, the most protracted in Latin America’ (UNHCR, 2007, p.153).

^8. Ibanez (2008) makes a thorough study of displaced populations in Colombia. In this study we focus on organisational forms adopted in the municipalities affected by different types of violence, including outward displacement, as determinants of hybridisation.

^9. The source of data for our study is Departamento Administrativo para la Prosperidad Social, Registro Unico de Población Desplazada – SAPD, July 2006. Retrieved from http://www.dps.gov.co/contenido/contenido.aspx?catID=295&conID=556&pagID=838

^10. DANE (2006), Series de Población 1985–2020, Retrieved from http://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/poblacion-y-demografia/series-de-poblacion; Censo General (2005). Retrieved from http://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/es/educacion-cultura-gobierno-alias/poblacion-escolarizada/

^11. Federación Colombiana de Municipios, Retrieved from http://www.fcm.org.co/index.php?id=162 and DANE (2006), Series de Población 1985-2020, http://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/poblacion-y-demografia/series-de-poblacion.

^12. In a small booklet, (Orozco et al., 2008) we presented our results and discussed them in focus groups with the heads of the production units, asking for a validation and for possible interpretations of the main results.

^13. This relationship between social capital and the organisation of production and distribution seems to have been noticed by the so-called ‘Peace and Development Programs’ leaders. These programmes are run usually by non-governmental organisations, to promote social association as their main strategy to restore confidence and promote production and other forms of income generation among the population of the regions affected by violence. The leaders of these programmres shared with us that in the beginning they observed that people in these areas of conflict were trying to associate, and that the success of the Peace and Development Programs was tied to the Program’s support of their initiatives to associate in social, altruistic and economic organisations.

^14. Interview, March 2007.

^15. Interview with the leader of a cooperative in the region of Magdalena Medio, March 2007.