Abstract

LARRAZ-ELORRIAGA, Irene. The Construction of Legitimacy through Symbolic Capital. The Case of the Colombian Peace Process. Estud. Polit. [online]. 2017, n.50, pp.257-280. ISSN 0121-5167.  https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.espo.n50a14.

The aim of this article is to answer how the peace process has been legitimated and which resources have been put into play to transform historical enemies in allies in order to construct peace. The hypothesis claims that the emphasis in a strategic discourse about the structural factors favoring a peace process hinders the possibility of valuing the effect that symbols and other changes have had in the legitimation of the dialogues and the construction of a peace culture. The framework of this article is based on political sociology and Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic capital in order to examine the process of construction of legitimacy as a set of practices through which the Colombian Government and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) had redefined their identity. The conclusion points to the discourse of reconciliation with the past and the promise of a shining future. On the other hand, its failure has been identified as the product of the tensions between the sphere of values and the social structure that blocked the legitimation of the process in the plebiscite, reviving rooted symbols in the social schemes.

Keywords : Peace Process; Symbolic Capital; Political Sociology; Legitimacy; Recognition; Colombia.

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