Epistemic Activism and the Production of Spatial Knowledge in Argentina

VALLEJOS, OSCAR; LEVRAND, NORMA ELIZABETH; MATHARAN, GABRIEL

Tapuya: Latin America Science, Technology and Society

Taylor & Francis

Año: 2023

This article aims to analyse the existence of a spatial activism in Argentina, characterised by the production of spatial knowledge. This type of activism is part of what is called here "epistemic activism". The hypothesis held by this research is that contemporary activism appears on this condition: it invents and mobilises (uses) concepts to produce and channel public deliberation in a framework that enlightens the social problem in question in a new fashion, and in turn, influences political action. Thus, there is awareness (a form of reflection) about the fact that the transformation of this world depends radically on the concepts used to think and talk about it. The desire to change the world is mobilised by the imaginary those concepts allow. To this purpose, this is an in-depth analysis of the underlying epistemic processes of the activist group Iconoclasistas*, which developed a methodology for collective mapping and a spatial expertise based on work in different cities worldwide. Based on the contributions made by Science, Technology and Social Studies, the contents of the maps built are studied in the dynamics of their production, their social forms of legitimisation and how they entered the ecology of spatial knowledge, being differentiated from knowledge or maps produced by academic, state or company experts. *Iconoclasistas: This word is the result of blending the Spanish nouns for icon and class, to convey the idea of constructing class images.