Sistematización de Experiencias en el Proyecto Territorios en Dialogo por el CEPDIPO 2023: Una Reflexión Teórica Desde la Experiencia Investigativa

Abstract

From February to July 2023, I had the opportunity to undertake my professional internship as a researcher in the Territorios en Diálogo project at CEPDIPO (Center for Thought and Political Dialogue). Established in 2016 following the Final Peace Agreement, this institution aims to contribute to peace, democracy, and a new society in Colombia, guided by values of justice, equality, social inclusion, and well-being. This mission is accomplished through the research and analysis of economic, political, and cultural aspects of Colombian society, along with supporting political education processes and memory recovery.

Territorios en Diálogo, the specific project in which I participated, is a pedagogical initiative seeking to facilitate collective analysis and reflection with diverse social and political groups in various territories. The goal is to understand and evaluate the geographic, environmental, sociocultural, and economic characteristics of these spaces. The project has been implemented in three regions: Cundinamarca, Valle del Cauca, and Bogotá. Upon joining as an intern, the characterization of Cundinamarca was already completed, and we were progressing with that of Valle del Cauca. During this period, I conducted the characterization of environmental, geographic, sociocultural, and economic aspects in Valle del Cauca, and also contributed to the systematization of workshops conducted in the region. Subsequently, we worked on the characterization of Bogotá, with a focus on sociocultural aspects.

In this reflective article, my emphasis will be on the process of characterization and systematization in Valle del Cauca within the Territorios en Diálogo project. I will describe the construction of the characterization in methodological and theoretical aspects, reflecting on the sociological theories employed.

A fundamental objective of this article is to ground the different characterizations (geographic, environmental, sociocultural, and economic) from a sociological theoretical perspective and propose recommendations for the process carried out by CEPDIPO with the Territorios en Diálogo project, based on reflections gained during my participation.

Additionally, I will recount the experience of the process undertaken as interns, highlighting the sociological methods applied for analysis and information gathering. One significant learning point is the understanding of the research procedures and frameworks used to construct characterizations. It is essential to note that, regardless of the focus on social description, each of the characterizations is crucial for the research team's workshops.

The outcomes obtained in these practices are based on the theoretical foundation of applied sociology to different characterizations. In the geographical realm, it was observed that geography plays a fundamental role in the interrelation between society and space. Regarding the environmental approach, a series of characteristics related to the interaction between society and its natural environment were identified. In the sociocultural analysis, the role of sociology as a discipline generating methods for demographic collection and delving into the conception of culture as a set of shared values in society was highlighted. Likewise, a critical view was considered regarding how culture can be used as a mechanism of domination. Finally, in the economic domain, exploration was undertaken on how economic conditions influence social structure, culture, and human decisions in a specific community or region. This revealed the close interrelationship between economic dynamics and their impact on other social and cultural aspects within the studied territory.