Building an inclusive peace is an uneven socio-spatial process: Colombia's differential approach

Colombia is struggling to implement what is far and away the world's most inclusive peace accord. As such, it is a useful case for thinking about what peace means, how it means different things to different people, and how to build peace across difference. Geographers widely agree that peace is an ongoing spatial process that varies across time and space, but have paid less attention to how it varies across groups within space. Social inequalities like race, gender, and sexuality are spatialized. They operate in and through space in interlocking ways, and looking at inclusion issues can strengthen understandings of how peace space is made. Attempts to build more inclusive peaces can also be strengthened by understanding and addressing the uneven socio-spatial processes involved. •Colombia’s peace accord is the world’s most inclusive to date.•It addresses different needs for peace based on gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and more.•Inclusion of affirmative measures, particularly LGBT protections, played a key role in the no vote against the accord.•Understandings of peace as a socio-spatial process can be deepened by looking at spatialized social inequalities.•Efforts to build more inclusive peace can be strengthened by understanding peacebuilding as an uneven socio-spatial process.