Paper short abstract:

In this paper we discuss, based on an applied case of victims from Colombia´s rural conflict, how human security models can be worked out from a transdisciplinary methods approach which stresses the importance of understanding local contexts as well as understanding subjective feelings of inscurity.

Paper long abstract:

Human security is proposed as a holistic concept to tackle security issues from a human-centered approach (UNDP Reports, 2021, 2022). We deal with a transdisciplinary concept that proposes security, not from a military–state concept of defense, but rather as a model to understand the fears that individuals and communities feel. Multiple external insecurities are involved. Interdependent uncertainties influence people´s and communities¨ feelings of insecurity according to their capacity for agency, their level of association and solidarity, and their particular world view which takes into account their vulnerabilities, needs, and fears.

A discussion about the relevant and valid methods that should be employed for that purpose becomes an important issue. I propose that transdisciplinary methods for research (Nicolescu, 2022) and action give important insights for designing and implementing new strategies on public policy. Transdiciplinarity becomes relevant when studies and policies are formulated in particular contexts, for instance in the case of land redistribution and restitution for victims of conflict in the case of Colombia.

Human security problems are unstructured problems in which it is important to involve the dimensions of being, feeling, and thinking of individuals and communities. They also require cooperative solutions. Fears of insecurities originate in the eye of the beholder and cannot be solved by fragmented, sectorial thinking. I stress the importance of assessing human insecurities directly from the dimensions of being, thinking, and feeling of the persons and groups involved. In this paper, I will discuss the fundamentals of transdisciplinary methods as proposed by Max-Neef (2005) and Fals Borda (2008). These authors develop approaches of participatory action research, involvement of different agents and stakeholders in their context, and social interactions through informal social networks,. In this regard, Heidegger´s insight of dasein ( being in the world) and the concepts of authenticity (1968) are important to be considered.

References

Fals Borda, O. (2008). Action research in the convergence of disciplines. International Journal of Action Research, 9(2): 155–167.

Heidegger, M. (1968). What is called thinking? (J. G. Gray, Trans.). New York: Harper Row.

Max Neef, M (2005). Foundations of Transdisciplinarity. Ecological Economics. Vol 53.

Nicolescu, B. (2002). Manifesto of transdisciplinarity (K.-C. Voss, Trans.). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). 2022. Human Development Report 2021-22: Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World. New York.

UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). 2022. 2022 Special Report on Human Security. New York.