The Social Appropriation of Knowledge (SAK) project in the Cesar Life Corridor aimed to promote community participation in designing a productive transition model. Its main objective was to identify the conditions of land used for mining in order to find new alternatives for its use and to structure productive linkages as a tool for achieving peace in the territory. A participatory and mixed methodology was implemented. The basic procedures included workshops, surveys, and interviews, with the full participation of 255 residents of Agustín Codazzi, Becerril, La Jagua de Ibirico, and Chiriguaná. The most notable results were the identification of local productive potential and vocation, the need to recover areas affected by mining, and the promotion of local empowerment. This attracted institutional interest, positioning the findings as a basis for future peace management policies. In conclusion, challenges related to technological accessibility and social adaptation to change processes were identified, linked to existing local capacities.
This article narrates an ethnography that takes shape as a creative process, forged through doodles that gradually transformed into sketches and drawings of the tools used in emerald guaquería, as well as the bonds with the people of the western region of Boyacá, Colombia. In this context, the Mining World is proposed as a visual and social poetics, constantly in tension with notions of “legality” and the relationship with nature. The series Golpe de Suerte is presented: six freehand drawings (ballpoint pen on bond paper) that appear throughout the text as a kind of decal. These drawings also serve as triggers for a methodology that discovers life as it encounters veins, understood as pathaways shaped by time, force, and pressure Around precious stones. A vein announces the guaca, the treasure, the wealth. Possibly, a vein leads to the emerald and, when that happens, guaqueros say that it “pintó.” The ethnography in western Boyacá has been carried out through a gaze grounded in drawing, which has broadly engaged with the doodle and the sketch by focusing on the repetitions of guaquero labor, of life, of the forest, of emeralds, and their mystery. The visual and social poetics of the Mining World are composed of: time, force, movement, tambre, pinta (r), and dominance.
This article examines the collaborative use of animation and drawing in ethnographic research to explore the memories and imaginative worlds of people who have experienced the illegal crossing of the Mediterranean. Working with three Egyptian men in Italy, anthropologist Alexandra D’Onofrio and animator Francesca Cogni invited participants to engage in storytelling, photography, and participatory animation to reflect on their crossing experiences. A key methodological experiment was animating without a storyboard, enabling improvised drawing and the co-creation of narratives in real time. This approach encouraged participants to reimagine their past and represent their experiences as they unfolded, supported by the animator’s expertise in drawing and stop-motion techniques. The process foregrounded participants’ agency in shaping their own accounts while challenging conventional ethnographic methods. In this context, animation emerges as both a creative and ethical practice, offering anthropologists a dynamic tool for collaboration and generating new insights into the fluid ways in which memories and identities are formed.
How can one depict the murmur of the sea or the changing tides throughout the day? I encountered this question when Jota sent me recordings of ocean sounds in our WhatsApp chat. He told me he wanted me to imagine the coastal town he had recently moved to, one that reminded him of the beach in Venezuela where he was born and lived until his teenage years. In this article, I reflect on ethonographic encounters with migrants living in Ecuador whom I met during my fieldwork, some of which took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. The conversations we had via WhatsApp once the quarantine was in place, as well as the moments we shared in person before that, became a repository of voices, sounds, and images, which in turn led me to draw specific moments. I thus found myself faced with the challenge of drawing the bonds that connect a group of migrant women —like a vine or crocheted chains— or of finding strokes on paper for a daughter who cares for her mother from afar, in the form of scraps of fabric. The five drawings I discuss in this text have made space to evoke complex and sensitive experiences, while I wonder how they could be expressed in a graphic format (Dix and Kaur, 2019); to situate the relationship between ethnographic drawings and forms of memory that do not always translate into text (Bonanno, 2019); and, above all, to think of ethnography as “a kind of archival effort that connects and deploys affective, material, and temporal fields” (García, 2016).
Contemporary anthropology requires innovative methodologies that address sensitive issues in an ethical and collaborative manner. This article analyzes the potential of combining photography and ethnographic drawing through the collaboration between the artist and anthropologist Karina Kuschnir and the anthropologist Hannah de Vasconcellos, during the latter’s research on Black women and the racial dynamics of care. We examine the process from the conception of self-portraits to the production of photographs, the development of drawings, and the return of these images to the women portrayed. This path was built through multiple ethnographic dialogues, within the relationship between researcher Hannah and her interlocutors, as well as with the illustrator Karina. The work is inspired by the collaboration of Afonso and Ramos (2004), who define drawings as devices for co-creation, mnemonic and affective activation, and for evoking both visible and invisible meanings of social relations and material culture, contributing to the documentation and creation of new meanings in the interlocutors’ self-perceptions.
Abstract: This essay explores the experience of Peruvian protographer Marco “Atoq” Ramón afeter partially losing his sight when he was shot by police covering a protest in the Puente Piedra disctrict of Lima in 2017. Through a dialogue between photography, drawing, and collaborative ethnography, the authors investigate the gaze that has emerged from this experience of state violence and impunity. Collaboratively, the text weaves together two threads: Atoq’s life and physical trajectory after the attack, and the concept of the “flash”, with which Atoq names the moments when one way of seeing fleetingly replaces another. In dialogue with anthropological debates on trauma, subjectivity, and the expressiveness of silence, as well as with experiences of eye mutilation in protest contexts in Chile and Colombia, this essay proposes drawing as a listening technique capable of recording gestures, affections, and exorbitant knowledge that exceed forensic and conceptual categries. Rather than interpreting violence, this practice seeks to bear witness to its interruptions, uphold ethical sensibilities, and foster emerging perspectives on life, death, and justice in a country ravaged by recurrent dispossession. Keywords: Photography, ethnography, drawing, violence, trauma, subjectivity, memory, social protest, justice.
The following article asks what role drawing plays in a context where the indexicality of images is politically charged, and where doubt is not only an ethnographic tool but also the object of ethnographic research. The article presents how in the mountainous district of the High Pyrenees and Aran (Alt Pirineu i Aran) in Spain, where I conducted research between 2016 and 2018, attacks by wildlife have drawn attention to the veracity of highly disputed visual evidence. Amid contradictory statemets from farmers and officials from the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries (DARP), the images fail to reflect epistemological certainty and instead foster a climate of mistrust. This article proposes that ethnographic drawing has the capacity to reveal the nuances of the complicated relationship that interlocutors have with images.
This paper examines the encoding power of drawings as vehicles for ethnographic conceptualization. By comparing a set of drawings collected by the author in the Western Amazon with illustrations from scientific field guides, this textexplores how images of animals do more than merely represent species. Instead, it is argued, drawings actively enact particular versions of nature. In doing so, they not only open possibilities for understanding nature but also set limits on how it can be perceived and experienced.
This article presents a systematic review of governance and governability in Colombian Indigenous communities. Drawing on the analysis of empirical studies, it identifies the challenges these communities face in sustaining their autonomy, particularly in the face of the State’s political and legal frameworks. The findings highlight persistent tensions between traditional forms of self-government and state regulation, revealing the urgent need for more inclusive public policies that respect Indigenous governance. The review also underscores the importance of integrating ancestral knowledge into state institutions as a pathway toward intercultural governance that promotes sustainable territorial development. It concludes that strengthening Indigenous autonomy is essential to confronting the pressures associated with modernization and globalization.
The city is a place of disputes where spatial segregation is one of the structuring elements of the urban environment and a promoter of social inequality, making real estate and financial capital the protagonists who most exploit its commercialization. In this scenario, the production of low-income housing developments is particularly noteworthy because, despite being aimed at the lower classes, they are used to increase land value. In this way, the study aims to understand how these complexes act as articulators of the urban fabric and intra-urban dynamics in the medium-sized cities of São Paulo. It focuses on the Brazilian municipality of Limeira, located in the interior of the state of São Paulo, where its housing estates, as well as being involved in national socio-economic nuances, have a strong link with regional socio-spatial dynamics. In short, the article focuses on demonstrating how the historical framework of these real estate actions has influenced the design of the urban (and social) fabric of the municipality in question.
This article addresses results from a research work following the principles and methods of the qualitative-evaluative approach that intended to design, develop, and validate a series of multimedia learning materials applied to different curriculum disciplines. The study was carried out in rural schools located in an underdeveloped Colombian Coffee Region from 2018 to 2020. Guidelines, class observations, surveys, interviews, and expert assessment were the most useful instruments and sources of data. The results indicate that given the novelty, attractiveness, and curiosity towards the use of multimedia components, rural schoolchildren acquired different levels of active learning competencies. Bearing in mind that digital divide may intensify the existing rural-urban gap, it is crucial to embrace innovative solutions to persistent problems in declining equity and quality taking into account the rural students’ contexts. It is a curricular innovation providing teachers the possibility to conduct interactive, dynamic, playful, and creative classes according to the rural reality.
El presente estudio identifica las principales influencias de la migración juvenil rural en el municipio de Granada (Meta), Colombia. El estudio replicó y adaptó el instrumento y las variables en la investigación de Lima et al. (2013), aplicando el instrumento survey a 62 jóvenes rurales seleccionados por medio de la estadística probabilística. Los resultados fueron analizados a través del método cuantitativo. Como resultado principal, se describieron las dificultades que enfrentan los jóvenes del municipio de Granada, siendo algunas la falta de infraestructura en educación, el trabajo y la violencia, que es el resultado de un conflicto armado que ha permanecido durante años. Para finalizar, se concluye que el 44 % de los jóvenes desea emigrar del campo a las ciudades debido a la alta tasa de modernización de las ciudades, lo que limita la mano de obra disponible en el campo; a la dificultad de encontrar trabajo en el campo; a la violencia; a la falta de acceso a la educación en el campo, y a la baja probabilidad de heredar la tierra. Estas variables son importantes para ser analizadas en el contexto de otros municipios limítrofes y pueden dar una luz a los formuladores de políticas públicas.
Este artículo presenta una reflexión en torno a la posición de enunciación en el arte colombiano, tomando como referente el problema de hablar por otros planteado por Linda Alcoff. Para ello, explora la distinción entre lo enunciado sobre el arte y lo enunciado por el arte, a la luz de algunos casos de obras de arte colombiano de la década de 1970 en adelante. En particular, aquellas obras que se apropian de un objeto de uso cotidiano pero cuya poética difícilmente se reduce a una importación de vanguardias. Ello permite contemplar una forma de identificar lo que el arte enuncia del contexto cultural (por ejemplo, el estado de viaje) y a la vez la posibilidad de provincializar el lenguaje del arte como modo de reconocer el potencial creativo y categorial emergente de la producción artística.
El texto analiza diversas posibilidades de realización y consolidación de iniciativas que faciliten y potencien dinámicas de cooperación sur-sur entre África, Asia, América Latina y el Caribe, desde una perspectiva cultural. También afianza la interdependencia, el diálogo y la coexistencia como elementos dinamizadores de los acercamientos entre pueblos, Estados e instituciones de estas regiones, y busca abordar el asunto de la cooperación sur-sur con recursos teóricos específicos y con referencias a la colaboración intelectual y cultural. Además, recurre a epistemologías alternativas, descolonizadoras y críticas para elucidar la historia de la alteridad africana, que se posiciona como un puente entre la asiática, la latinoamericana y caribeña. Esto permite alimentar reflexiones cargadas de improntas culturales, académicas e históricas que buscan intensificar dicha cooperación, y pone énfasis en el protagonismo de la comunidad de investigadores/as en estas iniciativas de colaboración académica. Igualmente, pretende establecer condiciones favorables para un mejor acercamiento de los pueblos, los Estados y las instituciones de este sur global. En definitiva, apuesta por la creación de alianzas fructíferas e indispensables para un diálogo sostenido, una coexistencia enriquecedora y una interdependencia constructiva que obren a favor del fortalecimiento de los intercambios culturales, políticos y económicos en este escenario internacional.
O presente estudo tem por objetivo compreender o papel das cidades médias na recepção, absorção, e redirecionamento desses fluxos migratórios no contexto do Rio Grande do Sul, a partir de Lajeado e Passo Fundo, e sua relação com a rede regional urbano-rural. O estudo classifica-se como exploratório, de abordagem quantitativa, utilizando dados secundários disponibilizados por órgãos governamentais. Os resultados evidenciam que o estado do Rio Grande do Sul vem atraindo, desde 2010, um número expressivo de imigrantes laborais internacionais, com destaque para os latino-americanos do sexo masculino, os quais tem se inserido em especial na indústria de transformação, serviços e comércio. Quanto à distribuição espacial, embora as cidades das regiões de Porto Alegre e de Caxias do Sul sejam as que mais concentram, cidades médias e pequenas também atraíram estes contingentes, como Lajeado e Passo Fundo, cada uma com suas particularidades.
El artículo tiene como objetivo contribuir al conocimiento de las interacciones ciudad intermedia y universidad teniendo como marco geográfico la ciudad de Pamplona Norte de Santander y su incidencia como centro subregional-nodal con vocación en la provisión de servicios transversales entre ellos el de educación superior. Se analiza la ciudad en el contexto de la geografía de los servicios y desde su condición de ciudad universitaria, a través de procesos socio territoriales, con el fin de caracterizar actividades, oportunidades e interacciones en el ámbito institucional, económico y cultural en el territorio. Como producto de investigación, pretende aportar en el entendimiento de las formas de producir ciudad, bajo dos supuestos: 1) las universidades como equipamiento urbano tienen un gran impacto, socioeconómico en el crecimiento y expansión urbana, 2) las universidades están ligadas de manera indisoluble con la ciudad, en hechos y lugares físicos que las convierten invariablemente en realidades socioespaciales.
Na pandemia, surgiram demasiadas reflexões relacionadas às urgentes formas de habitar eticamente o planeta. Propunham posicionamentos radicais que vislumbravam o fim do capitalismo. Porém, este salto centrou-se numa explanação verticalizada dos arranjos sociais, dado que o determinismo econômico arrogava-se uma interpretação dos lugares aonde estes arranjos eram concretizados. Portanto, a requerida busca por mais empatia com o planeta, este lugar habitado pelos humanos, sofreria de certo niilismo, o qual desconsideraria a potência das alternativas praticadas pelo senso comum. Assim, este artigo não discute demais possibilidades éticas para a renovação desta empatia neste vívido lugar. Apenas enfatiza que esta empatia subsiste em locais desconsiderados para tal empreitada, como nos conjuntos habitacionais populares. Desta forma, pretende-se discutir, com os relatos dos moradores do Conjunto Habitacional “Rubi” da cidade brasileira de Limeira, que a fundação de lugares éticos já é vivida nas situações que sentem na luta pela sobrevivência social, salutar e habitacional.
A importância que as análises referentes às dinâmicas urbanas das cidades médias ganharam é resultado da intensidade das relações estabelecidas nelas no contexto econômico da região em que fazem parte. Esta afirmação decorre principalmente por conta da (re)configuração comercial que as cidades médias passam para se encaixar em uma estrutura comercial que acompanhe as transformações locais, regionais, nacionais ou internacionais. É o que indicamos com a Feira do Aprazível, localizada no distrito de Aprazível em Sobral/CE. Para esta análise, foi fundamental reunir um arcabouço teórico e metodológico que permitisse reflexionarmos sobre como a estruturação de setores comerciais e de serviços possuem um significativo impacto nas dinâmicas locais e regionais. Foi possível identificar como a feira se tornou significativa não somente para o distrito de Aprazível, mas também para a cidade de Sobral/CE, que se beneficiou com as transformações urbano-comerciais apresentadas.
O artigo apresenta uma análise sintética das características da segregação socioespacial na cidade de Santa Cruz do Sul e seu Plano Diretor em relação ao expresso na ‘Nova Agenda Urbana’ – ONU/ Habitat III. Sob esta perspectiva é apresentado uma proposta de diretrizes para nova abordagem para compreensão do território que englobe a espacialização de dados quali-quantitativos do espaço urbano com vistas a subsidiar políticas públicas com ênfase nos resultados encontrados através de um processo de inclusão social, fomentando redes de troca locais e o empoderamento dos cidadãos em uma estratégia de organização e funcionamento que envolva o poder público, as entidades civis e de classe, a academia e comunidades locais de maneira equânime na compreensão e proposição de ações com foco na inclusão participativa e democrática dos cidadãos e ao Direito à Cidade enquanto alternativa paradigmática para mitigar os impactos da fragmentação territorial na cidade – as Ouvidorias Comunitárias.
