Indigenous resurgence, decolonial praxis, alternative futures: the Maya Leaders Alliance of Southern Belize

Gahman, Levi; Penados, Filiberto; Greenidge, Adaeze

doi:10.1080/14742837.2019.1709433

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Against this backdrop, the Q’eqchi’ and Mopan Maya people of Toledo District have a long history of collectively dreaming, articulating desires and acting to sustain life, land and relations. Whilst these events could be broadly characterised as a land struggle, the Maya have made it clear that this is only one part of a much larger endeavour; a struggle by Indigenous people for self‐determination and to live/be in a state of wellness in community (Gahman, Penados, & Greenidge, 2020a). Accordingly, after the 2015 CCJ ruling, the Maya Leaders Alliance (MLA) led an initiative to articulate a Maya vision for being/living well on the land.…”

Section: Research Context and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Desire over damage: Epistemological shifts and anticolonial praxis from an indigenous‐led community health project

Smith

Penados

Gahman

2021

Sociology Health & Illness

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This article offers an overview of an Indigenous‐led participatory research project, The Future We Dream, co‐developed by rural land defenders in Central America and the Caribbean. To engage in recent dialectics concerning complicity and decolonising methodologies, we centre Indigenous Maya conceptions of health, wellbeing and what ‘living well’ means to community members. For context, The Future We Dream responds to the 2015 landmark ruling made by the Caribbean Court of Justice affirming the land rights of the Maya people of Southern Belize. Amidst tensions with the state that followed the ruling, an autonomous movement composed of grassroots organisers turned their attention towards imagining and constructing a self‐determined future. In turn, the communities initiated a research exercise inspired by desire‐based methodologies (Tuck, 2009) to articulate a collective vision of a healthful Maya future outside of colonial‐liberal worldviews, and notably, formulating Maya visions of healthful, sustainable worlds. In reporting on this one example of grassroots, anticolonial health research that departs from the hierarchal knowledge production practices of liberal academia, this paper details the collaborative process/project; the complexities/complicities of research involving Indigenous communities; and how Indigenous epistemologies are generative vis‐a‐vis unsettling conventional knowledge production practices in the contentious field of global health research.

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Section: Research Context and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Desire over damage: Epistemological shifts and anticolonial praxis from an indigenous‐led community health project

Smith

Penados

Gahman

2021

Sociology Health & Illness

Self Cite

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“…The analysis of new social movements in Latin America is characterized by the diversity of its subjects, from barrios to blocos (Black carnival clubs) to more politicized and traditionally organized groups (Friedmann 1989;Davis 1999;Choup 2008;Chesters 2012;Wabgou et al 2012;Dixon 2014;Zibechi 2014;Gahman, Penados, and Greenidge 2020). Literature in this field has progressively shone more light on how these groups have found innovative ways to mobilize radically (Stahler-Sholk, Vanden, and Becker 2014).…”

Section: Through the Lens Of Socioterritorial Movementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maroon Socioterritorial Movements

Guillen

2021

Annals of the American Association of Geographers

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Maroon communities, or communities of descendants of fugitives from slavery, have been long-lasting examples of social movements pursuing political goals through the production and mobilization of space. They have been largely forgotten in academic analyses, however, which, in Latin America, are primarily focused on peasants and indigenous movements. Therefore, drawing on socioterritorial movements readings and maroon studies, this article analyzes how maroon-descendant communities have produced territory in both urban and rural spaces-including areas of forced displacement-locally and transnationally, to survive hegemonies deeply rooted in the legacy of slavery and to achieve political aims. These communities unsettle binary categories of rural and urban socioterritorial movements and monolithic visions of antistate struggle. This transterritorial, rural-urban appropriation of spaces resisting different powers follows the past logic of marronage to achieve freedom and security, re-creating in present times the political vision of historical maroon leaders regarding the construction of a grand Palenque in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean.

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“…Occupy Wall Street. However, less attention has been given to the autonomous struggles of place-based marginalized communities, such as Maya and Zapatista (Gahman, Penados, & Greenidge, 2020), to enact a desired future in the present (Jeffrey & Dyson, 2016). Building on the emerging research that highlights the struggles inherent in prefigurative organizing (De Coster & Zanoni, 2023; Schiller-Merkens, 2022), we suggest that CCs face various challenges in cultivating alternative practices.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Prefiguring Alternative Organizing: Confronting marginalization through projective cultural adjustment and tempered autonomy

Bhatt,

Qureshi,

Shukla

et al. 2023

Organization Studies

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In this paper, we examine community collectives—place-based, community-led initiatives for sustainable livelihood, as an alternative to the top-down, efficiency-driven economic model. Drawing on the theoretical framework of prefigurative organizing, we examined the strategies employed by community members in confronting entrenched inequalities and overcoming marginalization as they envision and engage in inclusive futures. We conducted a comparative case study of two exemplary community collectives in India that exhibited differences in the degree of internal and external marginalization. We identify two key cross-cutting themes of prefigurative organizing: projective cultural adjustment - whether a community leverages their traditional culture or breaks away from it, and tempered autonomy – negotiating autonomy without overtly challenging dominant groups, and exercising self-imposed restraints to make independent decisions. We show how these two themes manifested across three key processes of prefigurative organizing: prefiguring self-governance; commoning; and cultivating discursive spaces. These findings help us theorize that in communities where the degree of internal marginalization is high due to persisting social hierarchies, breaking away from past discriminatory practices, incorporating suspension of consent in the decision-making process, and introducing multiple constructive works are essential components of prefigurative organizing. In communities where the degree of external marginalization is high, building on the past, incorporating refusal in decision-making, and introducing unified constructive work are important components of prefigurative organizing. We suggest that prefigurative organizing against the dominant power structure, whether within community social hierarchies or external exploitative political-economic structures, is based on selective and strategic engagement without seeking an exit, as exit might not be an option for place-based communities. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this research for alternative organizing and grand challenges.

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Indigenous resurgence, decolonial praxis, alternative futures: the Maya Leaders Alliance of Southern Belize

Cited by 11 publications

References 5 publications

Desire over damage: Epistemological shifts and anticolonial praxis from an indigenous‐led community health project

Desire over damage: Epistemological shifts and anticolonial praxis from an indigenous‐led community health project

Maroon Socioterritorial Movements

Prefiguring Alternative Organizing: Confronting marginalization through projective cultural adjustment and tempered autonomy

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