Abstract

HERNANDEZ VIDAL, Nathalia  and  GUTIERREZ ESCOBAR, Laura. Epistemic and Political Struggles against the Privatization of Seeds and Collective Knowledges. Rev. colomb. antropol. [online]. 2019, vol.55, n.2, pp.39-63. ISSN 0486-6525.  https://doi.org/10.22380/2539472x.798.

Framed in a context of free trade policies and the privatization of the commons, we analyze the production of knowledge about 'traditional' seeds in the Colombian Network of Free Seeds, on two dimensions: (1) other ways of knowing and relating to seeds; (2) mechanisms by which these forms of know-how have been included or excluded from public policy. Drawing from critical studies on science and technology and decoloniality, we argue that there is a conflict between two forms of conceiving seeds. One, born out of discourses and practices of development, where seeds are the capital of the agricultural biotechnology industry and the knowledges on how to preserve and grow them are privatized. Another in which seeds, territory, and knowledge interweave as a commons.

Keywords : Colombian Network of Free Seeds; decoloniality; commons; privatization.

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