Imagining peace(s) in Colombia. Between negotiations, policies, and resisting narratives

Abstract

This article explores the plurality of meanings of peace and their encounters in order to understand the challenges ahead in the peacebuilding phase in Colombia. By mapping and systematizing the main discourses around peace in the public debate in Colombia, it shows the points of proximity and distance among them based on discourse analysis. In particular, the text deconstructs the hegemonic visions of peace by contrasting them with the alternative or critical proposals of peace. The paper concludes that the peace negotiations were a window of opportunity to give peace a meaning that was shared by a great majority of the Colombian society. Rather, on the contrary, the discussion about what peace means and entails has remained open after the peace agreement was signed and thus is affecting its implementation.