Culture&Territories#3

Neighbourhood & City
people who live in a state of interdependence in the construction of the economic,
social, cultural and ecological sustainability of a space which also belongs to the
community.
For indigenous peoples, the biolocal and the ethnolocal cannot be dissociated; one
does not exist without the other in that each “feeds” the other. Still, the ethnolocal
does not necessarily have to be experienced from the original place.
“The specific relations imbued in the notion of a place must not be confused with
those of the notion of originality, in other words, the fact that it is the first group to
occupy a geographic area – which would appeal to the idea of immemorial times –,
something difficult, if not impossible, of establishing, as archaeological disputes
thoroughly show.” (Little, 2002: 10)
It is for this reason, among others, that cultures are dynamic, since they result from
the interaction between social, spiritual and material manifestations and the environment
– space – and that, from this interaction, new sociocultural representations
are built and rebuilt. The idea of territoriality seems to be intrinsically associated
to that of “location” as stated by Mignolo – There is a sense of “territoriality”
embedded in the idea of “location” (2000: 15) – and which, according to this author,
derives from the imperialistic, State-nation policies developed in Europe from the
18 th century – “(...) This is the metaphysical imaginary built upon the political determination
of the nation-states and imperial designs” (ibidem). However, the itinerancy of these
peoples, for many different reasons (climate changes, expropriation, exile, asylum,
migratory fluxes, etc.), has contributed to the dislocation of their human
and cultural heritage, thus becoming a location-in-movement. This location-in -
-movement takes the place of location-on-land; the dislocal 1 - there is indeed a
separation from the “location” but not from the human heritage which culture
is composed by and derives from. Thus, since we cannot separate biolocal from
ethnolocal when discussing culture, we cannot condition the dislocal to the biolocal
to give way to the ethnolocal either. It is in this sense that the theme – Locations-in -
-movement – is found, spaces that cross borders, which lie beyond the physical space
and wander as human heritage to other places, where they then find new spaces
for action.
It is on and by this new itinerancy that the new challenges for the design and
(re)cons-truction of these new spaces, namely public spaces, can be found, since it
is on this “territory” that all forms of existence of life, in its natural [and cultural]
diversity converge.
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PUBLIC SPACE. PRAXIS AND POIESIS ON A SOCIAL SCALE
Public space is the prime gathering place of individuals, a place which aspires to the
exercise of citizenship. Therefore, the responsibility for these public places falls upon
institutions of power and, upon citizens, falls the awareness of their role in society
to be participants in the enhancement of what belongs to the community. Analysing