Jóvenes universitarios en Colombia

Entre la desinformación, el pesimismo y los anhelos de paz

Abstract

This text aims to show the social representations of a group of university students on the role of the university in building a culture of peace based on the following questions: How do university students represent the role of University in building a culture of peace in the dialogue between the Colombian government and the guerrillas? What could be the role of the Academy before an eventual signing of the peace agreement (post-agreement) in Colombia? What conditions and what atmosphere are perceived at universities to address the issue of post-conflict? And how do they represent their participation and commitment to the post-agreement? The methodology used corresponds to a mixed study from the perspective of the Theory of Social Representations, in which 500 surveys were applied to the same number of students from Francisco de Paula Santander University in Cucuta (Colombia), 25 interviews were conducted in depth and five (5) focus groups, in order to investigate the representations of these young people about the armed conflict, peace, peace culture and the role of universities in building peace. The article focuses its exposure on the hermeneutical exercise presentation and limits the results of the survey on the basis of strategies of qualitative data collection. The results allowed to identify four broad categories: culture of peace, environments for peace; actions for peace; and hesitations about peace. From these categories it deepened the understanding of the representations of university students about the role to be played by the university in contributing to building a culture of peace, in the framework of a possible stage of post-agreement as a result of the ending of the armed conflict between the Colombian government and the guerrillas.