Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CONTESTED_TERRITORY (From Contested Territories to alternatives of development: Learning from Latin America)
Período documentado: 2020-03-01 hasta 2023-12-31
Contested Territory is an international and intersectoral consortium of organisations from Europe and Latin America united in a joint research programme. This initiative aims to promote the generation and dissemination of conceptual and empirical knowledge on innovative and sustainable bottom-up models of territorial development. At present, the network includes 22 academic and non-academic institutions and about 180 participants. These members are committed to community-led initiatives that use alternative knowledge as the cornerstone for developing a productive framework. This framework is designed to capture the transformations of space and society, thereby facilitating the diffusion of knowledge from local to global contexts.
The network is committed to addressing the inherent challenges of territorial development through the production of collaborative and situated knowledge. This knowledge aims to foster sustainable partnerships between multidisciplinary teams from universities, research centres, cultural entrepreneurs and civil society actors across Europe and Latin America. In doing so, its participants engage in the exchange and creation of alternative grassroots knowledge. This process involves challenging the epistemic foundations of the relationship between humanity and the environment - a relationship often encapsulated in the official discourse of sustainable development. It also involves the integration of discourses emerging from Latin American popular culture and indigenous worldviews. These perspectives contribute to the generation of bottom-up models of scientific, cultural, political and economic innovation.
The network is committed to addressing the inherent challenges of territorial development through the production of collaborative and situated knowledge. This knowledge aims to foster sustainable partnerships between multidisciplinary teams from universities, research centres, cultural entrepreneurs and civil society actors across Europe and Latin America. In doing so, its participants engage in the exchange and creation of alternative grassroots knowledge. This process involves challenging the epistemic foundations of the relationship between humanity and the environment - a relationship often encapsulated in the official discourse of sustainable development. It also involves the integration of discourses emerging from Latin American popular culture and indigenous worldviews. These perspectives contribute to the generation of bottom-up models of scientific, cultural, political and economic innovation.
CONTESTED_TERRITORY is organised in 8 thematic working groups that cross-cut the original Work Packages, namely (WG1) “Methodological Experimentation and Training”, (WG2) “Territorial Accumula-tion”, (WG3) “Atlas of Territorial Accumulation”, (WG4) “Critical Policy Analysis”, (WG5) “Territorial extractivism through land and housing”, (WG6) “Extractivism by Infrastructure”, (WG7) “Popular Trade and Markets”, and (WG8) “Otros saberes/Other Knowledge(s)”. The working groups have combined tools that dispute hegemonic meanings ascribed to territories and the way they are used, imagined, and inhabited, pursuing to produce social knowledge but also to contribute to the symbolic and material transformation of territories.
By disputing the meanings ascribed to territories, CONTESTED_TERRITORY has produced theoretical strands founded on an in-depth dialogue with mainstream concepts on the co-production of knowledge (WP3: Documenting and visualising Contested Territories. The scope of territorial accumulation). This dialogue led to formulating a situated and provisional conceptual tool coined as ‘territorial accumulation’ (Working Paper 2 - WG2), which provides a way of understanding how the dynamics of capital operates in the territories with multi-scalar and interdisciplinary approaches informed by decolonial - “Otros saberes”, ecological, feminist and Marxist thought. It also seeks to contribute in insights about how to address the current ecological crisis that appears as a consequence of economic and epistemic crisis, allowing to explore its implications in the critical analysis of policies (Working Paper 2 - WG5).
The Atlas of Territorial accumulation (Deliverable 3.3) appears as both a cause and consequence of the theoretical content of the term ‘territorial accumulation’, highlighting its provisional character. Although the term provides conceptual elements for mapping and visualizing processes of territorial accumulation in Europe and Latin America, the content and the way the Atlas has been envisioned imply the continuous transformation of this concept (WP5: Theorising Contested Territories) by deconstructing common ‘truths’ and reflecting upon methods to co-create knowledge(s) and represent them visually.
The network has also fostered the co-creation of (audio)visual and performative techniques as a way to effectively connect with the knowledges of communities and (re)creating collective experiences related to the dynamics and conflicts occurring in territories. In this regard, cinema, podcasts (as is the cases recorded in Madrid and Buenos Aires to address other ways for researching), photography, performance, and artistic installations have played a significant role in generating and communicating re-sources through collective exchanges and experimentation (WP2: Approaching Contested Territories. Methodological experimentation and training). In this line, the project enabled the 2023 edition of the Buenos Aires based film festival “Ciudades Reveladas”, in which “La Cuenca” film was premiered: a participatory documentary that addresses the territorial conflicts about water sources in the Chilean Wallmapu.
By disputing the meanings ascribed to territories, CONTESTED_TERRITORY has produced theoretical strands founded on an in-depth dialogue with mainstream concepts on the co-production of knowledge (WP3: Documenting and visualising Contested Territories. The scope of territorial accumulation). This dialogue led to formulating a situated and provisional conceptual tool coined as ‘territorial accumulation’ (Working Paper 2 - WG2), which provides a way of understanding how the dynamics of capital operates in the territories with multi-scalar and interdisciplinary approaches informed by decolonial - “Otros saberes”, ecological, feminist and Marxist thought. It also seeks to contribute in insights about how to address the current ecological crisis that appears as a consequence of economic and epistemic crisis, allowing to explore its implications in the critical analysis of policies (Working Paper 2 - WG5).
The Atlas of Territorial accumulation (Deliverable 3.3) appears as both a cause and consequence of the theoretical content of the term ‘territorial accumulation’, highlighting its provisional character. Although the term provides conceptual elements for mapping and visualizing processes of territorial accumulation in Europe and Latin America, the content and the way the Atlas has been envisioned imply the continuous transformation of this concept (WP5: Theorising Contested Territories) by deconstructing common ‘truths’ and reflecting upon methods to co-create knowledge(s) and represent them visually.
The network has also fostered the co-creation of (audio)visual and performative techniques as a way to effectively connect with the knowledges of communities and (re)creating collective experiences related to the dynamics and conflicts occurring in territories. In this regard, cinema, podcasts (as is the cases recorded in Madrid and Buenos Aires to address other ways for researching), photography, performance, and artistic installations have played a significant role in generating and communicating re-sources through collective exchanges and experimentation (WP2: Approaching Contested Territories. Methodological experimentation and training). In this line, the project enabled the 2023 edition of the Buenos Aires based film festival “Ciudades Reveladas”, in which “La Cuenca” film was premiered: a participatory documentary that addresses the territorial conflicts about water sources in the Chilean Wallmapu.
Since the beginning of the action, a number of impacts could be identified in the territories where the initiatives have been carried out. In general terms, our approach has provided opportunities for academic and non-academic participants to actively shape practice and policies targeting more inclusive territorial development and different models of social cohesion; generating significant benefits for societies in Latin America, with transferable outcomes to Europe. These outcomes have centred, on the one hand, on the conceptual lens of alternative knowledge(s) and “Otros saberes” to carry out com-parative research of processes of territorial accumulation, and, on the other hand, the participatory research methodologies that place the communities at the heart of collaborative, horizontal, and mu-tually trustful partnerships. Thus, by dislocating traditional research roles, the participants have brought together cartographic, (audio)visual, artistic and performative pieces as alternative practices of re-search, which grasp the multiplicity and complexity of (other) ways of being and knowing that contest Western hegemony.
Most particularly, some of the projects that have been carried out during the reported period illustrate the ways in which the state of the art has been overcome. The "Tenant Survey" is a clear example of this, as an international and cross-cutting initiative that has generated crucial knowledge on the socio-habitational situation of rental markets and its territorial consequences, in Manchester, Madrid, Barce-lona, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Karlsruhe, and Leipzig.
One of the most relevant features of the Tenant Survey has been its impact on the public agenda, since the collected data and analysis have been produced from the perspective of participatory-activist research, implemented in a close dialogue with social organisations and activists. In this way, the project achieved access to and collaboration with grass-roots movements, allowing to reflect, from below, advocacy tools to promote better public policies on key urban questions related to the residential rental market. Particularly, In the case of Buenos Aires, different mass media with a wide reach among Argen-tinean citizens have disseminated some of the results obtained within the framework of the Tenant Survey, data that filled the lack of official data on this issue. This took place in a context of strong pub-lic debate, where the existing Rent Law was being discussed and questioned by different sectors of civil society, the real estate sector and the political sphere in general.
Most particularly, some of the projects that have been carried out during the reported period illustrate the ways in which the state of the art has been overcome. The "Tenant Survey" is a clear example of this, as an international and cross-cutting initiative that has generated crucial knowledge on the socio-habitational situation of rental markets and its territorial consequences, in Manchester, Madrid, Barce-lona, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Karlsruhe, and Leipzig.
One of the most relevant features of the Tenant Survey has been its impact on the public agenda, since the collected data and analysis have been produced from the perspective of participatory-activist research, implemented in a close dialogue with social organisations and activists. In this way, the project achieved access to and collaboration with grass-roots movements, allowing to reflect, from below, advocacy tools to promote better public policies on key urban questions related to the residential rental market. Particularly, In the case of Buenos Aires, different mass media with a wide reach among Argen-tinean citizens have disseminated some of the results obtained within the framework of the Tenant Survey, data that filled the lack of official data on this issue. This took place in a context of strong pub-lic debate, where the existing Rent Law was being discussed and questioned by different sectors of civil society, the real estate sector and the political sphere in general.