The spread of the COVID-19 has generated a global rupture of routines and everyday life. The situation for informal settlements is exceptionally delicate due to their socio-economic conditions and the restrictions imposed by the quarantine to contain the virus. In this brief piece, we present our reflections about the quarantine in relation to urban informality. Most of our discussion is centered on an informal settlement in Bogotá: El Codito sector. We reflect on the quarantine as a privilege that not everyone possesses, as well as on the materiality of the quarantine and the possible suspensions of informal powers. We suggest considering the potentialities and capacities of informal settlements to help flatten the curve and navigate the crisis.
The systemic disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic amplified the effects of some social inequalities and revealed positive environmental effects associated with slowing the economy. In order to explore the repercussions of contagion prevention and community engagement initiatives such as deploying face masks and visualizing Covid-19 statistics, we resorted to an ethical model of Design for Responsible Innovation (DRI). This interactive model is useful for identifying, exploring, and describing analytical and generative paths of inquiry departing from, or arriving at, diverse matters of concern such as the impact of commodification and manufacturing in society and nature, the relativism of truth, the segregation of identities, and the reduction of agency. In this paper we argue that the human-centered perspective on design relies on a biased value system that either disfavors some social groups or disregards nonhuman living agencies, and we emphasize the analytical capacity of the model to chart and rationalize alternative inquiry paths. In consequence, future responsible design interventions would benefit from positioning life at center stage and embracing the relational and dependent nature of human beings from a posthuman perspective. To achieve this, research methods capable of handling human-nonhuman units of analysis and allowing the examination of systemic impact in complex systems are needed.
Este escrito presenta y discute cómo pequeños productores de leche generan formas espaciales que se contraponen a espacialidades impuestas de actores nacionales y globales. Este documento de trabajo es el resultado de un estudio cualitativo que por medio de entrevistas recopilo prácticas campesinas y recorrió los espacios sociales producto de estas prácticas. El texto destaca espacios, prácticas, actores y relaciones de los pequeños productores de leche, mientras reflexiona sobre ciertas condiciones y situaciones que enfrentan diariamente estos productores.
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