ZEF Colloquium on Board Games for Participatory Research: An Experimental Ethnography on the Trade of Chagra Products in Indigenous Communities in the Colombian Amazon

February 16, 2022 | 11:00 h - 12:00 h

Topic: Board Games for Participatory Research: An Experimental Ethnography on the Trade of Chagra Products in Indigenous Communities in the Colombian Amazon

Speaker: Pablo De La Cruz (ZEF guest researcher) 

Venue: Zoom

https://uni-bonn.zoom.us/j/94086172944?pwd=c2RjTnFObTdVeGt6bWV1aXZ1aTMvQT09

Meeting-ID: 940 8617 2944

Code: 374563

Abstract:  This presentation reflects on a participatory research that led to the design and use of a board game with indigenous people in the Colombian Amazon. One of the objectives of this research was to increase dietary autonomy and promote traditional knowledge associated with biodiversity of indigenous peoples. With the board game, variables of analysis emerged that took into account the ecological particularities of the chagra system and the social relations within which food is produced. The goal of the “Juego de Chagras” is to produce, process and market food, and in its execution, decision making involves the players in discussions and analysis of the studied phenomenon. The players’ strategies and how they connect to the decisions that people make on a daily basis are analyzed by means of experimental ethnography. It is concluded that games hold considerable potential for participatory research, if they are analyzed as cultural performances that reveal the situation of the players on the basis of the decisions they make in the game, and the social contexts in which they are immersed.

Pablo De La Cruz is Sociologist, Phd in Science in ecology and sustainable development (El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, México). His work in the Colombian Amazon has emphasized on community processes to strength food autonomy, protect traditional knowledge and local environment governance.

Contact: Andreas Gohlke (agohlke(at)uni-bonn.de)