Current Project

My current research investigates environmental mobilization in areas affected by armed conflict. It interrogates how experiences during armed conflict inform how communities employ different repertoires of contention, focusing on contests over the development of large-scale extractives (mining, oil, and gas) projects in their territories in Colombia as a case study. I employ a multi-method approach to research, consisting of statistical analysis of an original dataset of popular mobilizations in Colombia combined with semi-structured interviews and participant observation in Colombia.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Shenk, J. (November 2023) “Does conflict experience affect participatory democracy after war? Evidence from Colombia.” Journal of Peace Research.

Broad political participation is widely accepted as a crucial element of transitions from armed conflict to peace. As such, reforms to increase access to participatory democracy are often written into peace accords. Yet despite this connection between peace and participation in policy, we know relatively little about how the two interact in practice. Who uses participatory institutions? Does civilians’ experience during armed conflict affect how they participate after war ends? This article examines an unlikely case of post-conflict participation in Colombia to answer these questions: the activation and organization of local referenda from below – that is, by conflict-affected communities themselves – to contest the national government’s mining and oil policy. Using an original dataset of 95 municipality-level attempts to organize these referenda (consultas populares), I find that both conflict intensity and insurgent group presence have significant and positive effects on consulta activation. The impact of insurgent group presence, however, is mediated by the timing of armed groups’ consolidation of territorial control. I further explore this relationship through a qualitative case study. The results highlight the importance of considering the lingering impact that armed conflict may have on democratic participation beyond electoral politics. Even when communities explicitly avoid references to conflict or victim status in their discourse, experiences during armed conflict can still shape local dynamics of political participation during post-conflict transitions.

Shenk, J. (October 2022) “Consultations and Competing Claims: Implementing Participatory Institutions in Colombia’s Extractive Industries.” Comparative Politics. https://doi.org/10.5129/001041522X16358097946287.

Conflicts between local communities and their governments over natural resource development are not new in Latin America. When mining and oil companies move in, communities have blocked roads, staged protests, and undertaken other forms of direct action. More recently, however, communities have expanded their tactics, turning toward the state and its participatory institutions to contest claims over their land. This article investigates this trend and the conditions that facilitate it by analyzing an original database of 102 attempts by communities in Colombia to implement one participatory institution—the popular consultation—to challenge large scale extractive projects. I argue that communities' ability to contest extractive projects by leveraging participatory institutions depends on the balance of power between two external players—private firms and expert allies.

 Shenk, J. (July 2015). Ningún País Entrega a Sus Hijos: Extradition, Nationalism, and Political Legitimacy in Belisario Betancur’s Colombia (1982-1984). Columbia University Journal of Politics and Society

Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters

Shenk, J. (2022) “Extractive Projects and Participatory Democracy: Lessons from the Consulta Popular” in Gobernanza ambiental para la paz en Colombia, eds. Ángela María Amaya Arias, Kristine Perry, and Erika Weinthal. Bogotá D.C.: Universidad Externado de Colombia, the Environmental Law Institute, and Duke University Press.

For the past two decades, Colombia’s national government has promoted investment in large-scale extractive (mining and oil/gas) projects as drivers of economic development in regions of the country most-affected by armed conflict. Where these projects overlap with territories controlled by ethnic minorities, companies must engage in processes of prior consultation and provide an arena for community participation in extractive development.  Meanwhile, such a mechanism has not existed for campesino and other non-ethnic minority communities whose territories will be affected by new or expanded projects. Between 2013 and 2018, communities in 95 municipalities across Colombia activated the consulta popular as a mechanism to address this gap in participation. The successes and failures of pro-consulta movements in these municipalities offers lessons regarding access to participatory mechanisms as a tool for communities in conflicts over extractive development. Where and how do communities turn to participatory institutions to address competing claims over natural resources? Can they empower local communities struggling against global actors? This chapter begins to answer these questions through analysis of an original database of attempts to hold consultas populares related to extractives. By examining patterns of local mobilization and vote outcomes, this chapter concludes that the consulta has offered communities limited direct power over extractive project development but has created a framework for those same communities to indirectly shape national conversations around extractive development. 

Shenk, J. (2023) “Colombia: Progressive Extractivism and Contradictions in Territorial Peace” in Extractive Bargains and the State-Society Nexus, eds Paul Bowless and Nathan Andrews. Springer Nature.

This chapter traces the intersecting relationships between extraction, peace, and conflict in Colombia to illustrate that country’s contradictory “territorial peace” extractive bargain. For the past two decades, Colombia’s national government has promoted investment in large-scale extractive project as drivers of economic development in regions of the country most-affected by armed conflict. This narrative took on a new urgency in 2016 when vast swaths of territory were opened to investment after the government signed a peace deal with the country’s largest guerrilla group. This chapter argues, however, that this peace bargain is rife with contradictions as it explores the gap between the national government’s promise of territorial peace after the 2016 peace accord alongside its continued reliance on repressive tactics to silence challenges to its extractive model.

Working Papers

“Epistemic gatekeepers: NGOs, experts, and participatory democracy in Colombia” Revise and Resubmit.

"State for Hire: Corporate-state security contracts in extractive zones” with Shauna Gillooly (Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Santiago de Chile). Under Review.

“Participatory Democracy from Below: Applying Archimedes’ Lever” in preparation

“Silent Signaling: Norm Diffusion and LGBTI Norms in Transitional Justice” with Jessica Anania (Georgetown University), in preparation.