Community water management in marginalized communities of the Global South: bottom-up citizen science? (in Spanish)

This publication belongs to Volume 6, No 2, of the WATERLAT-GOBACIT Network Working Papers Series (http://waterlat.org/publications/working-papers-series/)

In Mexico, the State does not guarantee the right to water and sanitation. As a result, many communities rely on their own knowledge of water access and management, and often weave networks with non-governmental actors in this endeavor. Here I analyze an experience of water quality monitoring carried out with a marginalized community in Morelia, Mexico, an experience that is part of their strategy to guarantee their right to water. My research on such community experiences, in the context of marginalized communities in the Global South, is guided by two questions: (1) Can they be considered forms of citizen science? and (2) Is such conceptualization relevant in academic and social terms? My analysis suggests an affirmative answer in both cases. However, I argue that in contexts like this in Latin America it would be necessary to theorize about citizen science departing from critical literature on science developed by civil society, as well as on the production of knowledges and ecologies of knowledges, as proposed in various epistemologies of the South.