Cartography has a troubled history as a technology of power. The production and distribution of maps, often understood to be ideological representations that support the interests of their developers, have served as tools of colonization, imperialism, and global development, advancing Western notions of space and place at the expense of Indigenous peoples and other marginalized communities. But over the past two decades, these marginalized populations have increasingly turned to participatory mapping practices to develop new, innovative maps that reassert local concepts of place and space, thus harnessing the power of cartography in their struggles for justice. In twelve essays written by community leaders, activists, and scholars, Radical Cartographies critically explores the ways in which participatory mapping is being used by Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and other traditional groups in Latin America to preserve their territories and cultural identities. Through this pioneering volume, the authors fundamentally rethink the role of maps, with significant lessons for marginalized communities across the globe, and launch a unique dialogue about the radical edge of a new social cartography.

El libro Tierras tradicionalmente ocupadas presenta la sintesis de una multiplicidad de situaciones concretas referidas a los procesos de territorializacion diferenciados, que conciernen tanto al Sur del Brasil, como al Nordeste y a la Amazonia. Considerando que estamos viviendo un tiempo en donde el saber en accion de los agentes sociales a la orden del dia parece estar al frente de cualquier posibilidad de interpretacion, solo un trabajo que reflexione sobre estos procesos sociales a partir de la consideracion de la accion de los sujetos y de una practica antropologica comprometida podria producir un estudio coherente con la situacion actual. El libro analiza situaciones concretas con un refinamiento teorico que no recurre a modelos interpretativos rigidos ni a amarras metodologicas. Al contrario, son las situaciones mismas las que le han impuesto al investigador su forma interpretativa.