Activism in regions of crime-related violence and corruption 2017-2019

By combining techniques such as structured interviews and direct observation in meetings and other events, the team sought to understand and compare activists’ diverse initiatives. This project studied activist responses to crime-related violence and corruption in the Mexican state of Michoacán. We understood activism as practices aimed at changing “the rules of the game” to achieve a more just society. In such difficult contexts as the Mexican state of Michoacán, activists are themselves often subject to violence, and hindered by corruption and other institutional failings. Despite this, we found that some of the many initiatives that we studied did help to mitigate the effects of violence and corruption, and to change some of the rules of the game that made them possible. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted between 2017 and 2019 to elucidate regional differences as well as different kinds of activism. The project had the objective of evaluating the effectiveness of the different activist groups. Our comparative ethnographic approach enabled us to generate insights that were at once sensitive to local specifics and applicable to other parts of the world affected by crime, violence, and corruption.<p>Although scholars and analysts suspect that civil society has the potential to mitigate the effects of criminal violence, few have conducted substantial research on the topic, and they have focused mainly on national (and international) civil organizations. We propose to focus on civil organizations based in the affected regions themselves, specifically within the west-central Mexican states of Michoacan and Jalisco, a region with high levels of criminal violence.
It is increasingly recognized that treating organized crime as a matter of security is insufficient and can even exacerbate the problem, and that organized crime must be addressed through holistic strategies that include development consistent with human rights, providing opportunities for a dignified economic, social and political life outside the sphere of criminal organizations. In the state of Michoacan, for example, after "self-defence" vigilante groups ousted local police accused of serving organized crime in 2014, the federal government established a Commission for Security and Integral Development promising to deliver equitable and participative development to the region.
Yet holistic strategies are notoriously difficult to execute when, as often in Mexico, state institutions in the affected regions are captured, wholly or partially, by the same criminal organizations and their associates. In these contexts, criminal organizations can for example use their hold over local (and state) government to frustrate the designs of national government, as well as of international agencies.
Researchers and policy-makers suspect that civil society has an important role to play in these contexts. Civil society can monitor the actions of state institutions, insist on participating in development projects, resist development that hurts or fails to benefit vulnerable groups, and advocate strategies that do meet the needs of the broader population, thus helping to offset the hold of criminal organizations overhose institutions, as well as creating alternative livelihoods for the population. However, although there have been some studies of the role of national (and international) civil society in holding state institutions to account, the potential role of civil organizations within the regions themselves is little studied. This is our focus.
The few studies conducted, and initial research by the applicants, suggest that civil society organizations are often themselves hemmed in by organized crime, and find it difficult to resist penetration by organized crime, much less to advance an agenda contrary to its interests. This helps to account, indeed, for the reluctance of many researchers to conduct sustained fieldwork in these contexts.
Despite the forbidding panorama, the project will use comparative ethnography, following strict protocols designed to mitigate risk to researchers and research subjects, to identify and explain positive examples of organizations which have played an effective role in holding state institutions to a human rights agenda, and specifically one designed to offset the noxious effects of organized crime activities.
Project outputs include an academic monograph co-authored by Guerra (CIDE), Maldonado (Colegio de Michoac&aacute;n) and Stack (Aberdeen), and a volume edited by Stack to include papers from an international conference in London and others chapters co-authored by the applicants with the postdoctoral RAs.
Unusually for an academic research project, we have chosen to put the policy outputs on an equal footing with the academic outputs. To this end, we have incorporated 2 policy analysts Domingo (ODI) and Jesperson (RUSI) as Co-Investigators. We have followed their instructions from the outset to ensure that the data collection and analysis will be adequate to the task of producing a series of well-grounded policy briefs, applicable to other regions of Mexico (and the world) affected by criminal violence.</p>

通过结合结构化访谈、会议及其他活动中的直接观察等技术，研究团队旨在理解并比较活动人士的各类倡议。本项目聚焦墨西哥米却肯州（Michoacán）活动人士对犯罪相关暴力与腐败的回应。我们将行动主义（activism）定义为旨在改变“游戏规则”以实现更公正社会的实践。在米却肯州这样的复杂环境中，活动人士自身常遭受暴力威胁，并受腐败及其他制度失灵（institutional failings）的阻碍。尽管如此，我们发现所研究的众多倡议中，部分确实有助于缓解暴力与腐败的影响，并改变了导致这些问题的部分“游戏规则”。2017至2019年间开展的民族志田野调查（ethnographic fieldwork）揭示了区域差异及不同类型的行动主义。本项目的目标是评估各类活动团体的有效性，其比较民族志方法既兼顾地方特殊性，又可为全球其他受犯罪、暴力与腐败影响的地区提供借鉴。

尽管学者与分析师认为公民社会（civil society）具备缓解犯罪暴力影响的潜力，但针对该主题的深入研究较少，且现有研究主要聚焦全国性（及国际性）民间组织（civil organizations）。本项目拟聚焦受影响地区本土的民间组织，具体为墨西哥中西部的米却肯州与哈利斯科州——这一区域犯罪暴力水平较高。

越来越多的共识认为，仅将有组织犯罪视为安全问题的处理方式是不足的，甚至可能加剧问题；必须通过兼顾人权的综合发展战略来应对，为民众提供脱离犯罪组织的有尊严的经济、社会与政治生活机会。例如，2014年米却肯州“自卫”民团驱逐被控为犯罪组织服务的地方警察后，联邦政府成立了安全与综合发展委员会，承诺为该区域提供公平且具参与性的发展。

然而，在墨西哥受影响地区的州级机构常被犯罪组织及其关联方全部或部分控制的情况下，综合战略的执行难度极大。在此类环境中，犯罪组织可利用对地方（及州级）政府的掌控，阻挠联邦政府及国际机构的规划。

研究人员与政策制定者认为，公民社会在这类情境中可发挥重要作用：监督州级机构行动、坚持参与发展项目、抵制损害或未惠及弱势群体的发展、倡导符合更广泛民众需求的策略，从而帮助抵消犯罪组织对这些机构的控制，并为民众创造替代生计。但现有研究多聚焦全国性（及国际性）公民社会在问责州级机构中的作用，对区域本土民间组织的潜在角色研究甚少——这正是本项目的核心。

现有少量研究及申请者的初步调研表明，民间组织常被有组织犯罪束缚，难以抵御其渗透，更遑论推进与之利益相悖的议程。这也解释了为何许多研究者不愿在此类环境中开展长期田野调查。

尽管前景严峻，本项目将采用比较民族志方法，遵循旨在降低研究者与研究对象风险的严格协议，识别并解释有效推动州级机构践行人权议程（尤其是抵消有组织犯罪有害影响的议程）的组织案例。

项目成果包括：由Guerra（墨西哥经济研究与教学中心，CIDE）、Maldonado（米却肯学院，Colegio de Michoacán）与Stack（阿伯丁大学）合著的学术专著；由Stack主编的论文集，收录伦敦国际会议论文及申请者与博士后研究助理（postdoctoral RAs）合著的其他章节。

与常规学术研究项目不同，本项目将政策成果与学术成果置于同等地位。为此，我们邀请了两位政策分析师Domingo（海外发展研究所，ODI）与Jesperson（皇家联合军种研究所，RUSI）担任联合研究员（Co-Investigators）。项目自启动起即遵循其指导，确保数据收集与分析足以支撑一系列基于实证的政策简报（policy briefs），为墨西哥及全球其他受犯罪暴力影响的地区提供参考。