Theoretical and methodological framework
| Autor | Daniela Gómez Rivas y Alexander González-Chavarría |
| Cargo del Autor | Political scientist, with emphasis on conflict resolution and peace research/Sociologist, Ph.D. in Social Sciences (emphasis in sociology). Ph.D. candidate in Political Sciences. Assistant professor of the Political Sciences Departament of the Pontitifica Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá) |
| Páginas | 447-463 |
CHAPTER 1
THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGIAL FRAMEWORK
Daniela Gómez Rivas1 y Alexander González-Chavarría2
INTRODUCTION
e Colombian State, through Law 1448 of 2011, ordered to implement transitional justice measures
(truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition), which included those that emphasized on
the memory duty of state entities. Specically, the mandate comprised:
fostering the guarantees and conditions needed for society, through its dierent expressions: such as victims, aca-
demy, think tanks, social organization, victims and human rights organizations, as well as the State agencies having
the competence, autonomy and resources, to move forward on the exercise of memory reconstruction as input to
the achievement of the right to the truth to which victims and the society as a whole are entitled3.
is investigation takes as research object the regional contexts where the Colombian Air For-
ce (FAC)4 has developed operations in the period 1998-2014, having as background the national and
international context in this time span. e problem under analysis is the way how structural factors
relate to behavioral factors in the conguration of these contexts. In this regard, the main objective was
to specify some core facts for the reconstruction of the historical institutional memory of the FAC in
terms of the analytic description and practical conguration of these contexts, assuming that each one
of them can be conceptualized as a protracted complex conict system (SCPC)5 from a multi-level and
multi-agent perspective.
1 Political scientist, with emphasis on conict resolution and peace research.
2 Sociologist, Ph.D. in Social Sciences (emphasis in sociology). Ph.D. candidate in Political Sciences. Assistant professor of the
Political Sciences Departament of the Pontitica Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá)..
3 Victims law and land restitution, and regulatory decrees, Art. 143 (2011) - bold included.
4 Spanish acronym.
5 Spanish acronym.
448 Theoretical and Methodologial Framework
e selection of this theoretical and methodological approach depended on the following assumptions:
1. e Colombian conict can be analyzed as a protracted conict system.
2. Protracted conict systems are complex systems that, in turn, include subsystems. Such subsystems
have structural and dynamic attributes that allow them to be treated relatively autonomously (modu-
lar approach), depending on the scale or level of analysis selected (macro, meso, micro). To the extent
a spatial dimension is integrated, these systems and subsystems may be represented through a car-
tography.
3. Each systemic level contains agents or social actors that perform in such a level. e dynamic dimen-
sion (processes) of the systems is generated precisely as an outcome of the interaction among such
social agents and their action strategies. However, these interactions are determined and, in turn,
determine the structural conditions that constraint them (structuration and agency issues).
4. Courses of action, as well as the interactions between agents are quite numerous. erefore, the event
chain or interaction ow that leads to any outcome or social phenomenon of interest is complex and
impossible to accurately predict. is implies that the most convenient way to analyze, describe or
explain the outcomes resulting from these interactions is upon causal mechanisms (non-linear rela-
tions).
5. Given the assumptions 1 to 4, the most adequate methodology to address the research of a SCPC is
an agent-based modelling (MBA in Spanish) approach, particularly its qualitative applications. e
integration of the structuring and agency approach allows expanding this methodology to dene it as
a multi-level and multi-agent analysis.
e chapter structure is as follows, hereaer. In the rst section, a protracted conict system ap-
proach will be presented as the adequate theoretical framework to address the internal Colombian armed
conict research. In the second section, we will present the conceptual assumptions that serve as foun-
dation for the multi-level and multi-agent analysis, which core aspect is the search for mechanisms that
allow analyzing, describing and even explaining the set-up and dynamic of these conict systems. At this
point, we will explain the analysis framework to be used to address the object of study at hand. We will
particularly present the data model derived from this analysis framework. In the fourth and last section,
we will systematically describe the methodological design and the empirical path to be follow that stems
from this theoretical approach and analysis framework.
Understanding the Colombian conict as a complex system allows to specically and descripti-
vely address the mechanisms and patterns involved on the arrangement of national and regional contexts
of FAC operations in the period established. Addressing the system from a multi-level and multi-agent
perspective also implies various additional advantages with respect to the investigation purpose and pro-
blem previously stated. It rst allows us to understand how the dierent structural factors, both social,
political, economic, cultural, geographic, as well as environmental condition enable or limit the course
of action of agents, and the results associated within each regional context observed. Secondly, it allows
us to describe and understand how contextual factors, as well as those factors associated with agents and
their interaction work at dierent scales or levels (local, regional, national and international). erefore,
although there are other possible approaches6, this theoretical and methodological approach allows us to
suciently, pertinently and timely address the requirements posed to this descriptive research.
6 Refer to the “eoretical Framework” section.
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