This thesis is an inter-disciplinary project incorporating history, philosophy, sociology, theology and political analysis. It looks at highly significant, yet little researched, aspects of the intellectual history of Colombian sociologist and political leader Orlando Fals-Borda, 1925–2008. The thesis reconstructs the early period of Fals-Borda’s career, 1948–1974, and reveals first-hand information about his original thinking gathered from his works, published and unpublished, and vast correspondence (much previously unknown) scattered in five different archives in Colombia, the USA and Switzerland. It establishes the foundations for comprehending one of the central themes of Fals-Borda’s intellectual and political career: his critique of ideology of political violence in Colombia. A basic tenet of this research is that intellectual history, rather than the objective presentation of somebody’s intellectual work within his/her historical context, implies a philosophical understanding of his/her main concerns. Thus, this interplay between intellectual history and critique makes this research far more than a historiography of Fals-Borda’s ideas since it explores his original insight into the complexities of the long-running violence in Colombia. The framework which supports this interplay between intellectual history and critique is Walter Benjamin’s ‘Critique of the Violence’ and ‘Theses on Philosophy of History’. Through the lens of Benjamin’s philosophy about violence and history, this thesis examines Fals-Borda’s ethics of subversion in a new light. Another central tenet of this research is that understanding the past is crucial for understanding the present, and vice versa. Thus, it highlights the importance of the ethical-theological, historical and epistemological bases leading to Fals-Borda’s development of Participatory Action Research (PAR). This approach is especially relevant to the current political situation and debate on democratic participation and socio-economic and human rights in Colombia, in the light of peace negotiations between the government, guerrilla groups and civil society.

This thesis develops a layered historical, ethnographic and theoretical analysis of ‘xenophobic' mobilisation and informal residence in South Africa. It explores the role of historically and spatially defined political identities in shaping exclusionary collective mobilization in the informal settlement, countering notions of ‘xenophobia’ as an effect of poverty, racism, elite manipulation, or psychological pathology. It argues that, in a context of stratified citizenship, ‘exclusionary’ mobilization by infra-citizens may be directed toward fuller citizenship andinclusion rather than toward the exclusion of a racial, cultural or ethnic other. Moving from the national to the local scale, and using a combination of archival data, documentary analysis, and ethnographic field research, I demonstrate how the South African squatter camp emerged as a site for the insurgent claiming of citizenship and became a place of anticipated transition to equal citizenship in the years leading up to 1994. A doubleembedded case study in the settlement of Mshongo in Atteridgeville, Tshwane, depicts how, post-democracy, this site of transition transformed into a static and apparently permanent ‘threshold space’ neither inside nor outside citizenship. Here, the distinct institutional structures and repertoires of collective mobilization and violence produced by spatial and political inequalities continued to produce a threshold form of (infra-)citizenship, leading to a resurgence of the settlements' traditions of collective action. I argue that individualistic economic and political practices by non-citizen newcomers became vivid transgressions of this tradition, particularly at times of protest where the salience of collective labour and priorities was magnified. Theoretically, the thesis provides an account of local belonging as built on anteriority and political involvement, challenging dominant readings of autochthony. In addition, it explores the relationship between ‘threshold space’ and exclusion so as to illuminate tensions between inclusion and exclusion; agency and ‘bare life’; citizens’ and human rights.

Embedded in debates concerning Britishness and citizenship, this thesis considers the influence of the dualistic tradition on citizenship theory and highlights the exclusionary nature of citizenship as founded in this paradigm. Working within this dualistic paradigm means that the lives and practices of being a citizen are not captured, creating an exclusionary cycle whereby the concept excludes the lives of many citizens, and many individuals are excluded from being a citizen as defined by the concept. This thesis used participatory, visual and online methods to explore belonging and exclusion with young people around England. Informed strongly by the field research, this thesis analyses citizenship as defined through dualistic and embodied paradigms and considers the potential of an embodied concept of citizenship for engaging young people.

The study of intra-state conflict has increased exponentially during the post-Cold War period. This has given rise to a variety of competing approaches, which have (i) adopted differing methodological and social theoretical orientations, and (ii) produced contradictory accounts of the causes and nature of violent conflict. This project intervenes in the debates which have resulted from this situation, and develops a critical realist approach to conflict studies. In doing so it rethinks the discipline from the philosophical ground up, by extending the ontological and epistemological insights which are provided by critical realism into more concrete reflections about methodological and social theoretical issues. In addition to engaging in reflection about philosophical, methodological, and social theoretical issues, however, the project also incorporates the insights of two largely neglected literatures into conflict studies. These are, first, the insights of the gender-studies literature, and second, the insights of decolonial/postcolonial forms of thought. It claims that the discipline is strengthened by incorporating the insights of these literatures, and that the critical realist framework provides us with the philosophical basis which is required in order to do so.

This research project examines sectarianism and sectarian violence in Pakistan between 1996-2005. It represents a departure from the security-focused research on sectarianism and provides contemporary analysis of sectarian violence by contextualising it. This thesis distinguishes sectarianism as an analytical concept from sectarianism as a phenomenon in Pakistan. The existing literature on sectarianism and sectarianism in the Pakistani context is critically examined, and this research is located within that body of knowledge. In this thesis, sectarian violence is understood as being conducted to reproduce and reinforce exclusivist sectarian discourse. This premise is analysed through the framework of identity formation and identity politics, and spatial understandings of identities. The study examines the locations of sectarian violence in Pakistan, and analyses the spaces where sectarian identity discourse is enforced and maintained through violence. Consequently, the concept of sacred space and sacred time are analysed as locations of sectarian violence. The contestations of public space by competing identity discourses, and the spatial manifestations of those competing identities are analysed. This dissertation also attempts to draw out whether sectarian violence is only located within and through the organised sectarian groups, or whether the sectarian violence indicates wider fault lines in the Pakistani society.

The concept of ‘empowerment’ has been widely used among development practitioners since the early 1990s. This thesis aims to contribute to the literature on empowerment by developing an analytical framework that incorporates: (a) the dialectical nature of power, (b) multiple levels of analysis, and (c) the subjectivities of power that different actors have and that affect the way they respond to policies. The model is applied to the analysis of Mozambique’s transition to peace and the study of a national initiative called District Development Fund, known as the ‘7 Million’, which aims to promote empowerment by reducing poverty and promoting local participation in the rural districts. The analysis focuses, on the one hand, on the ‘7 million’ policy formulation, stressing the power struggles that shaped its final outcome and, on the other hand, the policy implementation in the district of Angoche, where I conducted extensive fieldwork. I argue that, even though the ‘7 million’ had some positive aspects – including providing a discourse that underlines the relevance of the districts and the local community in matters of governance – its effects in promoting local empowerment have been far below its potential. One of the reasons for this is to be found in the dynamics of power-to and power-over that take place at the local level and that partly reflect structural aspects linked to the Mozambique state formation and peacebuilding process. More generally, the case illustrates the limitations and contradictions of policies that aim promoting ‘bottom-up’ empowerment from the ‘top-down’.

This dissertation examines the lives and experiences of former political violent activists in Portugal, who acted in three distinct periods surrounding the Carnation Revolution of April 25th (1974), which overthrew Estado Novo’s dictatorship and established democracy: a pre-revolution period (1964-1974), a counter-revolution period (1975-1976) and a post-revolution period (1980-1987). This research aims to explore the dynamics of engagement with, life within, and disengagement from, a political violent organisation from the point of view of the actors of the violence themselves, whose voices are traditionally silenced. This study is theoretically framed by the research produced by Critical Terrorism Studies’ scholars and underpinned by narrative inquiry as the paradigm that guides the entire research process. This is, thus, the first in-depth qualitative investigation of the phenomenon in Portugal, which employed life history interviews to collect first-hand accounts about their subjective experiences, meanings and perspectives. The findings suggest that there are robust connections between the stories people tell about their lives and the social, cultural, political, historical and human contexts that frame these same stories. The showcase of the empirical, theoretical and methodological implications of the research concludes this thesis, emphasizing what this study adds to knowledge in the field of political violence.

This thesis deals with the circumstances that lead to a fragmented implementation of post-conflict justice and security reforms and their negative impact on institutional capacity to provide justice and security for citizens. It strenghtens the existing critique of SSR by employing liberal peacebuilding critique to examine the development of the SSR agenda within the security-development nexus mainstream and the difficulties in learning from SSR experience. The main research question concerns the factors affecting the coherence and sequencing of justice and security system reforms, and is addressed through a case study of Mozambique. The analysis identifies power dynamics surrounding formal and informal interactions that impact institutional change, and showcase the vulnerability of justice and security system reforms to co-optation by powerful international and national players. Throughout, patterns of critical juncture and path dependence are identified that have influenced the adaptation of powerful local players to external and domestic pressures which resulted in political and institutional bricolage. The thesis also looks at how the sequencing of Mozambique’s triple transition, in which economic liberalisation prevailed over peacebuilding and democratisation, shaped the post-civil war direction and pace of the defence, police and justice reforms. The 1992 peace agreement and the public sector reform programme are investigated with regards to the failure of driving substantive SSR and of imparting it coherence and sequencing in the short, medium and longer term. Finally, lessons are proposed for future reform in Mozambique, and recommendations are drawn for improving the design of strategy and implementation of SSR in general.

The challenges faced by the global food and agriculture system in the twenty-first century are unlikely to be resolved through the implementation of neoliberal policies, most notably promoting market liberalisation, privatisation and financialisation. Many of these policies have also supported industrial agriculture, which has led to the production of many global public bads, such as significant greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution. However, industrial agriculture is not the only method of food production: sustainable agriculture is better placed to provide a wide range of global public goods (GPGs), including environmental protection and rural livelihood development, in addition to sufficient nutritious food. Therefore, there should be a move towards promoting sustainable agriculture with a focus on eradicating hunger and improving food security. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) can play a crucial role in ensuring agriculture provides the GPGs required. FAO also produces a number of GPGs through its three main roles; measurement, convening and norms and standards setting. This thesis asks if FAO is in a position to provide a food secure world. It also asks if the organisation is in a stronger position to provide the GPGs required following its extensive recent reform. Finally, it asks if a shift in emphasis towards the provision of GPGs will offer an alternative to neoliberalism.

The incidence of violence and the configuration of areas of instability, which have accompanied rapid urbanisation processes in the global South, have led to a wide range of responses by state authorities at different levels. These responses include attempts to control, prevent and/or manage various forms of violence and crime. An emerging literature on urban security aims to improve our understanding of public security provision in volatile urban contexts in the global South. This literature has so far been dominated by policy-oriented and state-centric analyses, as well as by critiques of the way neoliberal governance is shaping responses to urban instability. These analytical approaches tend to ignore the political aspects and governmental consequences of security provision in fragile cities. This thesis argues that Foucault’s work on governmentality and ethnographic methodologies offer analytical and methodological tools that can help us address limitations in predominant analytical frameworks and contribute to fill gaps in the literature. The thesis develops an alternative critical approach to the study of urban security using those tools and employs it to investigate security provision in Medellin. This alternative approach focuses on the way security shapes governing processes in particular contexts and on their implications for those who are most vulnerable to urban fragility. Moreover, the thesis uses this innovative approach to investigate the security strategy implemented in Medellin since 2002, as part of what has come to be known as the ‘Medellin Model’. By exploring this particularly relevant case, this thesis highlights the significance of undertaking empirical explorations of the rationality of security strategies in different urban contexts and the importance of taking into account people´s differentiated experiences of security provision. Furthermore, this thesis argues that this alternative approach helps us understand the way power is exercised for particular purposes and on particular subjects in an attempt to deal with urban violence and insecurity. It also argues for the inclusion of these dimensions in contemporary studies of urban security in the global South.