The integration of creative arts-based methods into scientific research offers a host of advantages, including the ability to capture the complex texture of lived experience, explore interconnections between nature and culture, support nonhierarchical relations, and communicate insights in engaging and empowering new ways. In this article, we describe a new method-CreativeVoice-integrating the creative arts and qualitative research, which we developed and applied in a context of pursuing community-based conservation of agricultural biodiversity. We developed CreativeVoice as an integrative method to help us understand the local contexts, cultures, and perspectives from community members of different ages and genders, in two contrasting farming communities in Oaxaca, Mexico. CreativeVoice effectively adapts and extends the Photovoice method so as to retain its benefits but address some of its limitations. This includes allowing participants to choose a genre of artistic expression connected to their own specific individual or cultural contexts and providing the capacity to move beyond capturing present-day realities to directly bring in connections to the past and visions for the future. This article describes both the CreativeVoice approach and the significant value of integrating arts-based methods into research for advancing sustainability.
The flow of transgenes into landraces and wild relatives is an important biosafety concern. The case of transgene flow into local maize varieties in Mexico (the center of origin of maize) has been intensively debated over the past 15 years, including legal, political, and environmental disputes fanned by the existence of a significant scientific controversy over the methods used for the detection of transgenes. The use of diverse approaches and a lack of harmonized methods specific to the detection and monitoring of transgenes in landraces have generated both positive and negative results regarding contamination of Mexican maize with genetically modified material over the years. In this paper, we revisit the case of transgene contamination in Mexican maize and present a novel research approach based on socio‐biological analysis of contrasting communities and seed management systems. Two communities were used to investigate how different social and biological factors can affect transgene flow and impact transgene spread in Mexico. Our results show the presence of transgenes in one community and thus support the position that transgenes are highly likely to be present in Mexican maize landraces. However, our work also demonstrates that the extent and frequency with which transgenes can be found will significantly depend on the societal characteristics and seed management systems of the local communities. Therefore, we argue that future analysis of transgene presence should include social research on the seed management practices in the sampling area so that more robust and comprehensive understandings and conclusions can be drawn.
El siguiente artículo trata sobre las limitaciones al control ciudadano y comunitario impuestas por el gobierno mexicano sobre la bioseguridad y las políticas de biotecnología, así como las resistencias y propuestas creativas emprendidas por campesinos, indígenas, científicos y activistas preocupados por la expansión de los cultivos de soya y maíz genéticamente modificados. Lejos de retomar una perspectiva que opone saberes locales no -académicos a conocimiento científico, nuestra perspectiva enfatiza la alianza de saberes y aprendizajes entre múltiples actores que conforman la sociedad civil que abogan por un bio-control más democrático y anclado, a nivel local, en aquellos territorios caracterizados por su variedad y riqueza en flora, fauna y modos de vida. A partir de información etnográfica recabada durante la realización de biomonitoreos en Oaxaca y Campeche entre el 2000 y el 2018, se destacan las contribuciones que campesinos e indígenas pueden hacer, desde su saber territorial, a la democratización de la bioseguridad concebida, esta última, en términos más amplios que los meramente establecidos por ley. Se reflexiona además sobre los retos y oportunidades que suponen los biomonitoreos ciudadanos y las controversias que estos suscitan.Palabras clave: Bioseguridad, alianza de saberes, territorios biodiversos, biomonitoreos ciudadanos, transgénicos, resistencia social
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