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Women are the main survivors in the Colombian conflict. Even in the most adverse circumstances they play a crucial role in their families' vital material and symbolic reconstruction. They are burdened with the pain of their losses, fear, family rupture, and righteous anger at seeing their bodies transformed into military targets. They reconstruct territories and identity referents while building multiple forms of resistance in the midst of sudden impoverishment and social exclusion. They take leading roles in their daily domestic and public spaces as they garner social recognition and self-esteem even while living at the limits of pain and uncertainty. As their memories interweave different times and places, pains and pleasures, these women rediscover their social networks and capabilities, the most important of which is the chance to provide a better life for their children.

Women are the main survivors in the Colombian conflict. Even in the most adverse circumstances they play a crucial role in their families' vital material and symbolic reconstruction. They are burdened with the pain of their losses, fear, family rupture, and righteous anger at seeing their bodies transformed into military targets. They reconstruct territories and identity referents while building multiple forms of resistance in the midst of sudden impoverishment and social exclusion. They take leading roles in their daily domestic and public spaces as they garner social recognition and self-esteem even while living at the limits of pain and uncertainty. As their memories interweave different times and places, pains and pleasures, these women rediscover their social networks and capabilities, the most important of which is the chance to provide a better life for their children. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2008.]

Colombia provides an instructive case-study of the relationship between non-state armed groups and the forced displacement -- and return -- of civilian populations. Adapted from the source document.

Does UN peacekeeping reduce the number of people forcibly displaced by violence? While previous research has found that the presence and size of peacekeeping deployments can reduce violence, little is known about how peacekeepers affect other aspects of civilian protection. Using original data on sub-national events of forced displacement and the location and size of UN troop deployments this study systematically evaluates the criticized efforts of UNMISS in South Sudan, while simultaneously testing hypotheses on peacekeepers and forced displacement. It is hypothesized that increasing numbers of troops affect the flight equation among civilians through the promise of and actual deterrence of violence. These deterrence-based hypotheses are also discussed in relation to the South Sudan context, creating scope conditions for their possible application in this case. The statistical analysis provides, however, no robust evidence for peacekeepers reducing the occurrence or levels of forced displacement, and only weak evidence of displaced congregating in larger numbers around peacekeeping locations. The paper ends by arguing that the theoretical argument provided may still be valid, but that an effect was not feasible to identify in South Sudan where the peacekeeping mission – despite its comparatively large numbers – lacks credible deterrent capacity.

Does UN peacekeeping reduce the number of people forcibly displaced by violence? While previous research has found that the presence and size of peacekeeping deployments can reduce violence, little is known about how peacekeepers affect other aspects of civilian protection. Using original data on sub-national events of forced displacement and the location and size of UN troop deployments this study systematically evaluates the criticized efforts of UNMISS in South Sudan, while simultaneously testing hypotheses on peacekeepers and forced displacement. It is hypothesized that increasing numbers of troops affect the flight equation among civilians through the promise of and actual deterrence of violence. These deterrence-based hypotheses are also discussed in relation to the South Sudan context, creating scope conditions for their possible application in this case. The statistical analysis provides, however, no robust evidence for peacekeepers reducing the occurrence or levels of forced displacement, and only weak evidence of displaced congregating in larger numbers around peacekeeping locations. The paper ends by arguing that the theoretical argument provided may still be valid, but that an effect was not feasible to identify in South Sudan where the peacekeeping mission ? despite its comparatively large numbers ? lacks credible deterrent capacity.

Serial forced displacement has been defined as the repetitive, coercive upheaval of groups. In this essay, we examine the history of serial forced displacement in American cities due to federal, state, and local government policies. We propose that serial forced displacement sets up a dynamic process that includes an increase in interpersonal and structural violence, an inability to react in a timely fashion to patterns of threat or opportunity, and a cycle of fragmentation as a result of the first two. We present the history of the policies as they affected one urban neighborhood, Pittsburgh's Hill District. We conclude by examining ways in which this problematic process might be addressed.