Revolutionary Social Capital

The authors show how, in the context of the civil war in Syria, belonging to groups of protesters against the regime constitutes a variety of social capital that is autonomous both from previous social capital and from other forms of social capital, in particular economic and cultural capital. The article thus shows how an event enables the formation of capital. Social capital does not only have a demultiplying effect on existing economic and cultural capital: it is characterized by its own logic of formation and accumulation. In a subsequent stage, this social capital is converted in positions within the revolutionary institutions, which then appear as an objectified form of social capital. The initial endowments in capital again become decisive if one wants to understand the chances of access to these different positions.