Practices of Self-Legitimation in Armed Groups: Money and Mystique of the FARC in Colombia

Abstract

This article addresses practices of self-legitimation within insurgent social orders, and asks in what ways are legitimacy claimed and how do these claims construct an understanding of self? We discern what such practices are and how they function by examining the insurgent order of the FARC in Colombia. The FARC has through its existence shown persistent abilities to generate support as well as resources for its cause, and allows for consideration of changes and stability in an insurgent social order over time. Our concern is to illustrate empirically how an engagement with practices of self-legitimation enables an understanding of how these practices function to create a coherent understanding of Self and its reproduction. The FARC has through such practices successfully contributed to establishing and reinforcing over time a form of symbolic power expressed by the group's revolutionary mysticism. Recent developments in the FARC suggest that the pressure on the FARC is strong, and the question is if the group will be as able to adapt as it previously has. We here outline the practices that have characterized the dynamism of the insurgent order in the past, and suggest that the external pressure may over time infuse a re-description of self.

KEYWORDS:

• Armed groups
• FARC
• insurgency
• self-legitimation
• social orders of violence