The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1995) is the historic background of this paper, as produced inthe reports of the United Nations and documents presented during international and national trialsconcerning war crimes committed during period. A literature review forms the analytical basis andcontains various studies from the domains of war sociology, social epistemology, pedagogy ofemancipation and lifelong learning, and sociology of knowledge. The aim of the paper is to analyse: 1)the negative/dark sides of social capital in the Bosnian–Herzegovinian post-genocide society thatemerged because of decades of symbolic and real war and post-war violence against the people in Bosniaand Herzegovina; and 2) the possibility of social development in the direction of a positive/lighter side ofsocial capital, in the sense of legitimising progressive politics of social development based on thefollowing foundations: a) learning peace, coexistence, and reconciliation; b) acknowledgment thatgenocide was carried out during the war and actively denied after the war; c) condemnation of genocide(both during the war and the post-war period); and d) active work to recognise the status of and obtaincompensation for the victims of the genocide (at the social, organisational/institutional, and individuallevels).