Social Reintegration

Abstract

This chapter explores social reintegration as a collective social process in which community acceptance of ex-combatants is one of the determinants. However, without denying the role of community acceptance, it also shifts the focus from collectivism to the agency of individual ex-combatants. It maintains that if social reintegration of ex-combatants is examined in the light of collectivism as well as individual agency of ex-combatants, it will be possible to better understand “community acceptance” and “community avoidance” as important themes, which shape ex-combatants’ relationships and interaction with the community where they have returned. The chapter shows that there are both individual and societal-level factors that can explain why communities have often limited acceptance of ex-combatants while, at the same time, ex-combatants also have avoided interaction and contacts with the community of their origin.