Project Objectives and Methodology

Focus

Land conflicts between rural populations and corporate projects in the mining, agribusiness, and hydroelectric sectors in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico characterized by high incidence of violence.

Objectives

• Examine the role and modalities of violence as an instrument of land dispossession in cases of land conflicts;

• Expose the relationships among state and non-state armed actors involved in processes of land dispossession across the mining, agribusiness, and hydroelectric sector;

• Demonstrate the correspondence between acts of violence enabling land acquisition on one hand and economic and security legislation on the other, including: 

  • economic legislation / policies that indirectly encourage the use of extra-legal violence; 

  • economic legislation / policies that most frequently require the use of violence to be enforced;

  • security legislation authorizing excessive use of force against civilians and criminalization social protest and environmental activism. 

• Assess the effectiveness of strategies used by rural communities to reduce violence and resist land-dispossession, such as legal, direct action, and transnational solidarity as well as identify new strategies.

Methodology

• This project employs action-oriented participatory methodology inspired by Paulo Freire, grounded in principles of dialogue, reciprocity, solidarity, and collective knowledge creation.

• Research participants shape the research agenda throughout every stage of the process including interview thematic focus and questions, focus groups discussion topics, decisions around data gathering techniques and logistics, and knowledge dissemination strategies.  

• The data collection methods include semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and participant observation. Close to 300 interviews and focus group sessions have been carried out throughout the course of the project across all three countries. 

Participatory methodology is particularly suitable given that the overreaching goal is to support a process of collective empowerment through developing strategies for securing access to land and reducing risk of violence. This in turn requires the active participation of those whose lived experiences of land conflict can also turn them into agents of social change.