ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the existing identity positions throughout three specific moments in the life of a former militant: engagement with, life within, and disengagement from a politically violent organisation. It presents a theoretical framework to capture and interpret such narratives at the micro-level, which provides in-depth information regarding the meso- and macro-level contexts in which they are created. The chapter looks at political violence "as a symptom of a dysfunctional social order" rather than "as a symptom of a dysfunction in the social order", with the aim of understanding the role played by violence within the social reality through the perspectives and experiences of its first-hand agents. In epistemological terms, knowledge is considered a social process attained by language, discourse, and relational exercises, which is always dependent on the context of its conception and connected to power because it is susceptible to serving "as a political tool of influence and dominance".
