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What? Today we start an exciting experiment: joint fieldwork on commons in Latin America. For the first time in CEDLA’s history, we are doing fieldwork with a team of seven researchers (two of them are still on the plane as we speak). By doing so we will practice multidisciplinary research ‘on the spot’, in order to learn from each other’s approaches and insights. The project’s working title is ‘Xela stories of transformation: A commons perspectives on (peri-)urban resource use, territoriality, and cultural representation’. Through this collective endeavour, we hope to better understand the reshaping of society, and contribute to key social science and humanities debates on the region’s particular trajectory of development.
Where? We are based in the country’s second city: Quetzaltenango – locally known as Xela (short for Xelajú Noj, its K’iche name). It is located in the Western highlands of Guatemala. While the commons and processes of commoning and decommoning can be studied almost anywhere, we opted for Central America because in recent years CEDLA has worked less on this part of Latin America. Among the reasons to select Xela was that this medium-sized city holds an interesting mix of urban and rural areas in its territory, and also social and ethnical (indigenous and rural) diversity. At this first day walking around Xela we have indeed witnessed the diversity of this lively city.
Why? This experimental joint fieldwork aims to jump start CEDLA’s new research programme ‘Reshaping society and the commons in Latin America’. The commons approach has become a vibrant interdisciplinary field, and we use it as a connecting analytical perspective. We will analyze social processes around traditional commons - natural resources such as water, land and forest - as well as so-called new commons - identities, urban public spaces, collective practices and knowledge. Territory and identity are key concepts in our understanding of the commons and (de-)commoning in Latin America.
How? We will do research on commoning around ‘Maya’ tourism, cemetries and security, as well as around agriculture, water and markets. These themes evidently flow from each one’s research interests, but in Xela we will also join one another in activities and have group visits and interviews. As with any experiment, some methods of doing joint research and connecting themes and insights have to be developed while doing. Last night over pizza, for instance, we ended up discussing if commons and commoning require a fixed group of people, or if may also be transitory (to be continued).
Over the next 12 days we will share our Xela experiences through a series of blogs.
Annelou Ypeij, Barbara Hogenboom, Christien Klaufus, Fabio de Castro, Kees Koonings, Michiel Baud and Rutgerd Boelens
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