Self-defence practices in Buenos Aires: Contesting urban inequalities through participatory methods.

HENRIKE NEUHAUS; CINTIA SCHWAMBERGER

London

Congreso; ASA19: Anthropological Perspectives on Global Challenges; 2019

ASA

he paper reconstructs the proceedings of an audio-visual workshop in a public school in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. By using a participatory research design that cuts across ethnography, pedagogy and arts, the aim was to apprehend inequalities and vulnerabilities the attendants confront in their everyday life. The school is close to the biggest landfill and one of the most polluted rivers of Argentina. The surrounding neighbourhoods are facing extreme poverty and multiple forms of violence that infiltrate daily behaviour. Here, the participants were asked to write about a trajectory or journey to use as an inspiration to make short films or produce art installations. At the end of the workshop, the groups exhibited and showed their outputs at a "science-fair" on the Campus of the University of San Martín, Buenos Aires.We propose to focus on one of the short-films that tells the dream of becoming a Taekwondo-instructor for disabled people. Over the core of the workshop the young filmmaker, who chose to use Taekwondo as a way to empower peers to be able to contest and protect themselves from threats of physical violence, he himself was facing several deceptions outside of school, including facing life-threatening home invasions.The process of producing audio-visuals and the participatory research design allowed us to access barely accessible stories and were able to create safe spaces in which deceptions have been expressed, reflected and coped.