Deliverable 6.4. School Booklets for Secondary Education

Methods and training TOOLKIT: Approaching Contested Territories June / 2024 Deliverable 6.4 August 2025 Ref. Ares(2025)8861914 - 17/10/2025 Deliverable 6.4. School booklet on Contested Territories brings together a set of teaching materials intended for circulation in educational settings and among groups interested in working on the debates promoted by Contested Territories. These teaching materials are directly linked to the generation of knowledge and experiences developed within the network and include different methodological approaches that were also systematized by the Contested Territories teams. The deliverable includes three areas of work: 6.4.1.- Urban Markets and Food Circuits. - Pag. 3 6.4.2.- Access to Housing: Commodification and Struggles for the Right to the City - Pag 23 6.4.3.- Disputes over WaterPag 48 The first addresses the issues related to the basic right to food and the networks established for the production, distribution, circulation and consumption of food. In particular, it delves into the topic of urban markets, distinguishing between traditional and popular markets, markets affected by gentrification and touristification, and markets linked to agroecological circuits that promote healthy and nutritious food. The second section develops issues and problems related to people's right to access adequate housing. It delves into the growing process of ‘tenantisation’ in European and Latin American cities, in both formal and informal neighbourhoods. It also addresses renewed forms of struggle and resistance, as well as actions to defend nature and common goods in cities. Ultimately, it is about conceiving the city as a space for living and enjoying collective rights. The third axis refers to issues associated with territorial disputes over water as a central element for human life, agricultural production and other economic activities. It reviews the different meanings that water has for different cultures, eras and contexts. It argues that the issue of water cannot be approached from a single perspective and proposes an interdisciplinary approach to understand it in its multiple dimensions. Each of these areas includes: a general introduction to the topic, key concepts, guiding questions, the cases addressed by Contested Territories research, and, finally, work proposals and methodologies in action. The proposals are organised around four dimensions and actions that challenge young people to take on a critical and active role: Explore, Interpret, Testimony and Take Action. These activities include the use and production of a wide range of resources, such as maps, texts, images, audiovisuals, or the use of the Voces-Territorios platform, also generated within the scope of Contested Territories. Together, the suggested activities invite reflection and action, collaborative work and the development of collective projects, and the articulation of teaching and learning processes in an enriching dialogue with communities and territories. Young people are the protagonists of these proposals, which aim to move towards the construction of other futures that are socially more equitable and environmentally more sustainable. School Booklets for secundary education August / 2025 School Booklet 1 of 3: Urban markets and food circuits June / 2024 Deliverable 6.4 August 2025 Jorge Blanco Luciana Bosoer Alberto Nanclares da Vega Instituto de Geografía - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires Argentina Instituto de Geografía - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires Argentina Basurama - Madrid, Spain Cover photo: Two elderly at the doorstep of a food market in the process of transformation into a supermarket Ciudad Lineal, Madrid, Spain. Photography: Elvira Megías, 2021 Blanco, J., Bosoer, L, Estévez, B., Pérez, I. (2025). Deliverable 6.4.1 . Urban markets and food circuits Editor Raquel Gurevich Instituto de Geografía - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires Argentina This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No873082. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This publication is the result of a collective writing experience. The authors are especially grateful to Miguel Kanai for his review and to Alejandro Armas-Díaz, Héctor Grad, Patricia Urquieta, Romina Olejarczyk, and the participants in the Encuesta Inquilina project for their comments and observations. Beatriz Estévez Cedeño Itahisa Pérez Pérez Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife España Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife España School Booklet 1 of 3: Urban markets and food circuits August / 2025 August / 2025 We invite you to explore and use this material from the Contested Territories network. Our aim is deepening the readings and experiences that the network has been carrying out in contact with various communities that collaboratively build, negotiate, imagine and manage their territories in power relations that are always unequal and in constantly contested. Through this proposal and the treatment of certain topics, we hope to help you better understand your own territorial experiences, take action and participate in collective situations aimed at improving the living conditions of diverse communities. It is YOU, the youth, who are the main characters for this proposal, which does not stop at analysing and explaining the situations studied, but aims to move towards the construction of alternative, inclusive proposals that bring together multiple disciplines and knowledge. Contested Territories proposes interventions to build other futures that are socially more just and environmentally more sustainable. We are counting on you to help make these goals a reality and enrich them with your creative and contextualised contributions. We offer you and the teaching and coordination teams that accompany you a set of concepts and analytical tools, but above all proposals for interpreting and inventing scenarios that go beyond the existing ones. The idea is to multiply encounters with various actors/agents in the community, in your schools and other social settings familiar to you, to produce conceptual and empirical knowledge about territorial inequalities, opening up new questions, perspectives and paths to resolution. P L E A S E N OT E School Booklet 1 of 3: Urban markets and food circuits August / 2025 The first addresses the issues related to the basic right to food and the networks established for the production, distribution, circulation and consumption of food. In particular, it explores the issue of urban markets, distinguishing between traditional and popular markets, markets undergoing gentrification and touristification, and markets linked to agroecological circuits that promote healthy and nutritious food. The second module develops topics and issues related to people's right to access decent housing. It delves into the growing process of “tenantisation” in European and Latin American cities, in both formal and informal neighbourhoods. It also addresses renewed forms of struggle and resistance, as well as actions to defend nature and common goods in cities. Ultimately, it is about conceiving the city as a space for living and enjoying collective rights. The third axis refers to issues associated with water conflicts and disputes as a central element for human life, agricultural production and other economic activities. We review the different meanings that water has for different cultures, times and contexts. We argue that the issue of water cannot be approached from a single perspective and propose an interdisciplinary approach to understand it in its multiple dimensions. Each of the materials consists of fixed sections, where you will find an introduction to the topic, key concepts, guiding questions, case studies from Latin America and Europe, as well as a proposal for work and specific methodologies for researching, writing and intervening in your areas of action. This proposal consists of three materials organised around the following content areas: Urban markets and food circuits Access to housing: commodification and struggles for the right to the city Disputes over water School Booklet 1 of 3: Urban markets and food circuits The United Nations recognises food as an essential part of people's individual and social lives. It is so important that it considers access to food on a regular, permanent and unrestricted basis to be a universal human right. Access to food can be achieved through self-production or purchase, but it must always be adequate and sufficient in terms of quantity, quality and cultural consumption patterns. In other words, the right to food guarantees the development of a satisfactory, dignified and fear-free physical and mental life, both individually and collectively. Along with the recognition of this basic right to food, there is a need to consider the networks that are established in its production, distribution, circulation and consumption. At Contested Territories, we understand that these complex networks are linked to processes of territorial disputes and closely linked to social and geographical inequalities. The processes of globalisation, commodification and neoliberalisation are intertwined with popular resistance and alternative models that emerge in this circuit, creating tensions across rural and urban areas. Territorial tensions and conflicts arise around issues such as access to food, food quality, distance from the place of origin, and the socio-technical processes involved in production. In this way, the territories involved in food production can be thought of as nodes and flows, in a relational way, in which social actors and places are linked in a network of circulation of people, goods, emotions, meanings and power. August / 2025 School Booklet 1 of 3: Urban markets and food circuits This is why it is important to pay attention to the origin of food, whether it comes from short, local circuits or long circuits; the techniques used for production, preservation and transport; and the social organisation of production, for example in the form of businesses or small producer groups. In this approach to the subject, other terms may arise that help us interpret the various situations that arise in these food networks, such as agroecology, global production or marketing chains, cooperativism, different types of markets, fair trade and food sovereignty. Recognising the diversity of workers involved in food production and distribution is a very important aspect. It is labour that adds value to products and is expressed at different times and under varying conditions in which workers carry out their activities: from the field where work is intended for primary production to the industries where food is processed. We also consider the transport that makes the circulation of production possible and the markets, of different types and sizes, which include small and large shops and restaurants, as well as distributors who deliver fast food through the streets, among others. These diverse work scenarios linked to the food production circuit reflect the different social relations that are put into action by the chains of production, marketing and consumption, involving multiple actors, from the family, community and cooperative levels to global production and marketing in supermarket chains. We can also consider how these food networks unfold in different territorial contexts: in rural areas of different types, in peri-urban areas, in commercial areas of cities, in markets or on the streets themselves. Other forms that we also include are street fairs and markets. In fairs, which are open spaces, both marketing and product exchange relationships take place. There are also producer cooperatives that sell directly to consumers in enclosed spaces, open spaces or on the street, and informal street trade fairs through trade fairs. In each of these contexts, disputes also arise, for example, over the use of resources such as water and land, the advance of urbanisation into food production areas, the location of businesses, and pressure to transform neighbourhood markets that are embedded in certain parts of the urban fabric. August / 2025 Welcome to the Territorial Accumulation Atlas on the Contested Territories website. At first glance, take a look at the tabs and labels on the page. As you will see, there are multiple ways to present the information: by country, on a general map, by case. We suggest you review the information by going to the general map shown in the Atlas https://www.contested-territories.net/atlas/ mapa-general/ and consult the reference table. If you look again at the reference table, which cartographic tools are used? Organise the information in a table so that you can share your results collectively. The Atlas also allows us to access cases based on the country of our choice https://www.contested-territories.net/atlas/ por-pais/ Check if, based on this new entry, there is any new information or new resources that allow you to learn more about the topic being presented. School Booklet 1 of 3: Urban markets and food circuits August / 2025 We also invite you to explore the "Voces-Territorios" platform, which is a participatory tool for making geolocated information visible and sharing it in various formats (such as photographs, audio, videos), building a collaborative map of the dynamics, interventions and conflicts in the territory. To do so, you must consult the app's requirements before downloading it and creating a user profile. In it, you can describe the situation or intervention and adapt it to the five dimensions proposed: territorial processes, sociocultural processes, emotions, types of struggle, types of action. You can enter the Collective Map section and explore the dimensions in which the information is organised, for example, sociocultural processes, emotions, etc. August / 2025 School Booklet 1 of 3: Urban markets and food circuits Popular markets, food consumption and production circuits Markets and neighbourhoods against gentrification in Madrid Organic supermarkets. “BIO” food in Berlin KEY WORDS CASE STUDIES August / 2025 School Booklet 1 of 3: Urban markets and food circuits August / 2025 School Booklet 1 of 3: Urban markets and food circuits August / 2025 School Booklet 1 of 3: Urban markets and food circuits August / 2025 School Booklet 1 of 3: Urban markets and food circuits August / 2025 School Booklet 1 of 3: Urban markets and food circuits August / 2025 Deliverable 6.4 August 2025 School Booklet 2 of 3: Access to housing: commodification and struggles for the right to the city Paula Lanusse Luciana Bosoer Equipo Antropología, Ciudad y Naturaleza - Área de estudios urbanos, Universidad de Buenos Aires Argentina Equipo Antropología, Ciudad y Naturaleza - Área de estudios urbanos, Universidad de Buenos Aires Argentina Instituto de Geografía - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires Argentina Vanina Lekerman Equipo Antropología, Ciudad y Naturaleza - Área de estudios urbanos, Universidad de Buenos Aires Argentina Marina Wertheimer Beatriz Estévez Cedeño Itahisa Pérez Pérez Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife España Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife España Jorge Blanco Instituto de Geografía - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires Argentina Editor Alberto Nanclares da Vega Basurama - Madrid, Spain Blanco, J., Lanusse, P., Lekerman, V., Wertheimer, M., ,Bosoer, L., Estévez, B., Pérez, I. (2025). Deliverable 6.4.2 . Access to housing: commodification and struggles for the right to the city Raquel Gurevich Instituto de Geografía - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires Argentina This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No873082. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This publication is the result of a collective writing experience. The authors are especially grateful to Miguel Kanai for his review and to Alejandro Armas-Díaz, Héctor Grad, Patricia Urquieta, Romina Olejarczyk, and the participants in the Encuesta Inquilina project for their comments and observations. School Booklet 2 of 3: Access to housing: commodification and struggles for the right to the city August / 2025 School Booklet 2 of 3: Access to housing: commodification and struggles for the right to the city The term refers to the processes of appropriation and control of space to extract value, displacing communities and reconfiguring territories under capitalist logic. Territorial accumulation responds to processes such as the commodification of land, the privatisation of public assets and corporate governance, and highlights how capital transforms spaces into financial assets, prioritising profits over rights and sustainability. This is the case, for example, in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain), where the local government intends to declare a protected area of La Tejita beach as suitable for urbanisation in order to develop and expand tourism. Activists and local residents are fighting to protect the landscape, ecosystem and natural and cultural heritage, debating development models and their effects. The notion of urban extractivism began to be used in recent years in Latin America to reflect on the dynamics of dispossession taking place in cities. According to this concept, cities absorb surplus capital which, in the face of banking instability, is poured into the real estate sector. The resulting products (housing, shopping centres, gated communities) function as financial assets with rates of return similar to those of other markets and, as a result, land and property prices rise significantly. These processes exclude large sections of the urban population, degrading their living conditions and giving rise to new conflicts and territorial tensions. In cities such as Buenos Aires, for example, the construction of new housing has grown significantly in the last two decades as a way of investing "in bricks" to protect savings and generate profits. This real estate boom contrasts, however, with a worrying reality: at the same time, the number of home-owning households has declined. More and more people are excluded from access to home ownership due to high costs, forcing them to turn to the rental market. This dynamic deepens inequalities and contributes to the phenomenon of tenantisation that we analyse here. August / 2025 School Booklet 2 of 3: Access to housing: commodification and struggles for the right to the city The financialisation of housing is the process by which housing is transformed into a financial asset, prioritising its exchange value over its social function. It involves the growing influence of banks, vulture funds, technology platforms such as Airbnb, developers, investors and rentiers at all levels of the real estate market, generating speculation, price increases and exclusion. This phenomenon deepens urban inequalities, displaces communities and consolidates neoliberal logic in access to housing. In cities such as Lisbon, for example, at the end of the 2000s, in a context of economic recession, the local government launched an urban regeneration agenda as an anti-crisis strategy aimed at attracting tourism and international investment. Urban construction requirements were simplified and municipal properties were put up for sale, without any public policies to guarantee local residents access to housing. As a result, the city is now experiencing a profound housing crisis that particularly affects women, gender and sexual minorities, migrants and the working classes. To learn more about this issue, please consult the tenant survey and the case study on the Mouraria neighbourhood in Lisbon. The concept of tenantisation refers to the socio-economic process in which the population dependent on renting to access housing grows massively as a result of the commodification of land and the financialisation of real estate. According to studies by the Contested Territories network, this phenomenon is driven by neoliberal urban policies that favour investors over residents. It leads to greater housing insecurity due, among other things, to high rents, abusive contracts, instability, covert evictions (e.g. through rent increases) and the risk of forced displacement. It particularly affects vulnerable groups, accentuating urban inequalities and transforming the basic right to housing into a speculative commodity controlled by powerful actors, investment funds and large capital holders. This is a growing phenomenon in Europe and Latin America, in both formal and informal neighbourhoods. To better understand its impact on people's lives and on the urban social landscape, we recommend reviewing the results of the tenant survey conducted in Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon and Buenos Aires. In the latter city, the survey also specifically analysed how the growing tenantisation affected the submarket for room rentals. Middle-class sectors, excluded from the formal rental market by rising prices and contract requirements, began to occupy rooms in hotels, guesthouses and tenements, displacing lower-income sectors that now face more critical housing situations. August / 2025 School Booklet 2 of 3: Access to housing: commodification and struggles for the right to the city The notion of struggles for housing encompasses collective resistance to land accumulation, which seeks to defend access to housing as a social right and not as a commodity. This idea includes a wide range of actions such as mobilisations, occupations and political demands against evictions, abusive rents and real estate speculation. These struggles, led by social movements and affected communities, challenge the neoliberal urban model and propose alternatives such as cooperatives, legal occupations and redistributive public policies, demanding the right to the city and to housing, the social function of land and decent housing. Trade unions and tenants' associations, for example, have been gaining prominence in recent years in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon and Buenos Aires. These organisations have grown as conditions for access to secure rental housing have worsened, and they tend to bring together very diverse social sectors, united in the struggle for access to decent housing and the right to the city. In terms of housing, gender equality means understanding that not everyone starts from the same position when it comes to exercising their right to the city. Women and other gender identities face historical, social and structural disadvantages. A gender equality approach seeks to redress these inequalities with measures, standards or policies that respond to the real needs of each person, according to their historical and contextual conditions. With regard to housing, it is not simply a matter of distributing resources such as loans or subsidies for purchase or rent equally or universally. Factors such as the gender pay gap, access to the labour market and the extra burden of care work must also be taken into account. In cities such as Buenos Aires, the results of the tenant survey showed that the situation of precariousness, housing instability and vulnerability is significantly worse in households headed by women, especially when there are children and/or persons with disabilities. August / 2025 School Booklet 2 of 3: Access to housing: commodification and struggles for the right to the city How can we guarantee the universal right to housing in cities? Why has access to housing become increasingly difficult? Which actors and processes dominate decisions about how cities are produced? Why do women face additional difficulties in accessing decent housing, especially when they are sole carers? How can we make our cities more equitable places? August / 2025 School Booklet 2 of 3: Access to housing: commodification and struggles for the right to the city August / 2025 Details about how the tenant surveys were made, teir global objectives and comparative objectives. School Booklet 2 of 3: Access to housing: commodification and struggles for the right to the city August / 2025 School Booklet 2 of 3: Access to housing: commodification and struggles for the right to the city August / 2025 School Booklet 2 of 3: Access to housing: commodification and struggles for the right to the city August / 2025 Struggles against touristification and gentrification in the Mouraria neighbourhood of Lisbon. Alliance between academia, tenants' unions and other social organisations for the design and implementation of the tenant survey within the framework of the Contested Territories project School Booklet 2 of 3: Access to housing: commodification and struggles for the right to the city Welcome to the Territorial Accumulation Atlas on the Contested Territories website. At first glance, take a look at the tabs and labels on the page. As you will see, there are multiple ways to present the information: by country, on a general map, by case. We suggest you review the information by going to the general map shown in the Atlas https://www.contested-territories.net/atlas/ mapa-general/ and consult the reference table. If you look again at the reference table, which cartographic tools are used? Organise the information in a table so that you can share your results collectively. The Atlas also allows us to access cases based on the country of our choice https://www.contested-territories.net/atlas/ por-pais/ Check if, based on this new entry, there is any new information or new resources that allow you to learn more about the topic being presented. August / 2025 School Booklet 2 of 3: Access to housing: commodification and struggles for the right to the city August / 2025 We also invite you to explore the "Voces-Territorios" platform, which is a participatory tool for making geolocated information visible and sharing it in various formats (such as photographs, audio, videos), building a collaborative map of the dynamics, interventions and conflicts in the territory. To do so, you must consult the app's requirements before downloading it and creating a user profile. In it, you can describe the situation or intervention and adapt it to the five dimensions proposed: territorial processes, sociocultural processes, emotions, types of struggle, types of action. You can enter the Collective Map section and explore the dimensions in which the information is organised, for example, sociocultural processes, emotions, etc. June / 2024 School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water Deliverable 6.4 August 2025 Alberto Nanclares da Vega Basurama - Madrid, Spain Cover photo: Butarque stream flows beneath an elevated highway Leganés, Madrid, Spain. Photography: Alberto Nanclares da Veiga, 2025 Blanco, J., Salamanca, C., Bosoer, L., Estévez, B., Pérez, I. (2025). Deliverable 6.4.3 . Disputes over water Raquel Gurevich Instituto de Geografía - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires Argentina This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No873082. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This publication is the result of a collective writing experience. The authors are especially grateful to Miguel Kanai for his review and to Alejandro Armas-Díaz, Héctor Grad, Patricia Urquieta, Romina Olejarczyk, and the participants in the Encuesta Inquilina project for their comments and observations. Jorge Blanco Carlos Salamanca Instituto de Geografía - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires Argentina Luciana Bosoer Instituto de Geografía - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires Argentina Instituto de Geografía - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires Argentina Beatriz Estevez Cedeño Itahisa Pérez Pérez Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife España Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife España Editor August / 2025 School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water August / 2025 We invite you to explore and use this material from the Contested Territories network. Our aim is deepening the readings and experiences that the network has been carrying out in contact with various communities that collaboratively build, negotiate, imagine and manage their territories in power relations that are always unequal and in constantly contested. Through this proposal and the treatment of certain topics, we hope to help you better understand your own territorial experiences, take action and participate in collective situations aimed at improving the living conditions of diverse communities. It is YOU, the youth, who are the main characters for this proposal, which does not stop at analysing and explaining the situations studied, but aims to move towards the construction of alternative, inclusive proposals that bring together multiple disciplines and knowledge. Contested Territories proposes interventions to build other futures that are socially more just and environmentally more sustainable. We are counting on you to help make these goals a reality and enrich them with your creative and contextualised contributions. We offer you and the teaching and coordination teams that accompany you a set of concepts and analytical tools, but above all proposals for interpreting and inventing scenarios that go beyond the existing ones. The idea is to multiply encounters with various actors/agents in the community, in your schools and other social settings familiar to you, to produce conceptual and empirical knowledge about territorial inequalities, opening up new questions, perspectives and paths to resolution. P L E A S E N OT E School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water August / 2025 The first addresses the issues related to the basic right to food and the networks established for the production, distribution, circulation and consumption of food. In particular, it explores the issue of urban markets, distinguishing between traditional and popular markets, markets undergoing gentrification and touristification, and markets linked to agroecological circuits that promote healthy and nutritious food. The second module develops topics and issues related to people's right to access decent housing. It delves into the growing process of “tenantisation” in European and Latin American cities, in both formal and informal neighbourhoods. It also addresses renewed forms of struggle and resistance, as well as actions to defend nature and common goods in cities. Ultimately, it is about conceiving the city as a space for living and enjoying collective rights. The third axis refers to issues associated with water conflicts and disputes as a central element for human life, agricultural production and other economic activities. We review the different meanings that water has for different cultures, times and contexts. We argue that the issue of water cannot be approached from a single perspective and propose an interdisciplinary approach to understand it in its multiple dimensions. Each of the materials consists of fixed sections, where you will find an introduction to the topic, key concepts, guiding questions, case studies from Latin America and Europe, as well as a proposal for work and specific methodologies for researching, writing and intervening in your areas of action. This proposal consists of three materials organised around the following content areas: Urban markets and food circuits Access to housing: commodification and struggles for the right to the city Disputes over water School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water Water is social, but it is also environmental and belongs to the spheres of life, politics and the economy. There are many reasons why water, with its multiple natures, has become a central terrain of current territorial tensions. Even if we think of the same territory, in the current times when the effects of global warming and climate change are most intense, water can mean scarcity and overabundance, depending on the time of year, the seasons and other environmental dynamics. It is a common paradox that communities that experience flooding are the same ones that face unmet water demand or lack access to quality water; these situations are referred to as water stress. Water is central to human life and to agricultural and economic production, although in certain circumstances, the two seem to be at odds. The same lake or river that means life and even the basis of collective identity for farmers and Indigenous Peoples is often simply a landscape that can be translated into profitability and economic value for companies and States. For the former, defending water and territory is a matter of their very identity and collective life; for the latter, it is a matter of business and economic accumulation. The environmental sustainability of territories depends on water, since certain ways of organising the territory or water flows can mean the prevention of disasters or the creation of risky situations. In recent years, academic and artistic research practices have found in water a central axis for addressing, analysing and proposing perspectives on the complexity of the contemporary world. What other element links realities, geographies, territories, interests and different social sectors like water does? Or environmental, social, political and economic issues? What other element is so dynamic, alive, changing and multifaceted? It is now clear that water cannot be approached from a single perspective; therefore, an interdisciplinary approach is required to understand it in all its complexity. August / 2025 School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water For reasons that we will describe below and that derive from the work experience of the Contested Territories network, current territorial disputes are often expressed in water, over water and through water. In the feature-length documentary "La Cuenca" (The Basin), filmed in southern Chile in 2023, for example, we can see how there are very different views, perspectives and expectations surrounding water. For some sectors of society, water is a consumer good or an attractive and decorative element of a landscape suitable for real estate projects. For others, water is a living being with which they maintain a relationship of care, reciprocity and affection. They even consider it a relative, as Luis Catrilef from the Mapuche people tells us. That is why Carlos Quiñenao, also from the Mapuche people, asks: Can water live? And if water can live, he affirms: "water can be killed." That is why it is possible to understand that "the people of the land" are "there to protect water." Some also see water as a superabundant resource that can be used as a place to dump waste, sometimes without much awareness, sometimes with total pragmatism. As the documentary "La Cuenca" shows us, it is also used for economic purposes, as other sectors use water as a tourist attraction. And all this happens at the same time. If we consider these tensions and conflicts in a temporal sense, it is possible to see that their origins can be traced back years, decades or even centuries, and that the effects of these tensions can be projected into different time frames in the short, medium and long term. For example, the colonisation of indigenous territories in the border regions of Latin America, such as southern Chile, involved the radical and seemingly definitive denial of different ways of living with water, glaciers, rivers and the sea. This is also referred to in the expression of water as a relational element, a characteristic that has been taken up by environmental movements such as Aguas Libres Villarica, when they state: "We are all everything". Based on the erasure of indigenous knowledge and philosophies and peasant communities by various states, a series of actions are being carried out in the territory that deny both their presence and the relational dimension of water, of which these peoples are an active part. This denial has multiple implications, one of which is violence. Celsa Isabel Saravia, from the Aguas Libres Villarrica movement, links something as small as a jug she found with a history of violence and usurpation that lies beneath, silenced. Along the same lines, the growing levels of pollution caused by enterprises such as salmon farms in southern Chile will have a mediumand long-term impact on the entire lake, affecting the lives of humans and animals there. It can therefore be said that territorial tensions involving water can be better understood in their multiple temporalities. August / 2025 School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water Water is relational. This means that it connects the peaks of glaciers and snow-capped mountains with the lowlands or the sea. Water connects the commonality of shared environments, with water as a shared space, with the most intimate corners of life in domestic spaces. Indeed, water connects rivers with hundreds and thousands of toilets in Villarrica and Pucón in Chile, as in most towns and cities in Latin America, whose waste, through intricate pipes, is discharged into rivers and then into lakes or other communities. In this regard, we can also look at the cases of the Bolivian communities of Chiluyo and Lukurmata, whose inhabitants, affected by pollution, have even had to migrate. The forms of pollution can be diverse. The cases of Bolivian communities discussed here also include peri-urban communities such as those of Puchukollo, which are exposed to pollution from landfills and real estate development. Just as water links salmon farms with tourist ventures, it also links property speculators with Indigenous Peoples. Water unites different sectors in conflicts that need to be resolved because conflicts are relationships. And these conflicts and relationships must be described, analysed and addressed in order to think about solutions. To this end, there are different types of tools that allow us to understand that the different actors involved in these conflicts do not compete on equal terms. They allow us to understand that relationships with water are marked by inequality. The materials made available here show that states, with their regulations, infrastructure and even their armies and security forces, sometimes favour the interests of certain socio-economic groups to the detriment of others. For example, public policies that support business interests against the demands of indigenous peoples, peasants or small landowners. The materials also show us that there are communities living surrounded by water without access to drinking water, shopping centres built on cemeteries and indigenous sacred sites, and communities such as Milluni, in the Katari basin in Bolivia, whose territories are contaminated by mining waste. Slogans such as "water is worth more than gold" and "it's not drought, it's plundering" that constantly emerge in many corners of Latin America refer to this inequality and these struggles for water. August / 2025 School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water Another case analysed by the interdisciplinary teams of Contested Territories is that of the Katari River Basin. The teams have produced videos, maps and texts that reveal the complexity of the relationships involved in a basin in situations of social, economic and environmental vulnerability. These alternative research tools are interrelated and, like a jigsaw puzzle, we can put the pieces together to better understand what a basin is. Upstream and downstream, indigenous communities in vulnerable situations are fighting for their well-being, although sometimes thinking and acting separately. In the Katari Basin, which encompasses territories of nine Bolivian municipalities and accounts for almost 10% of the country's total population, the rubbish dumped into the Pallina River has an impact hundreds of kilometres away when it reaches Lake Titicaca. And this is just one example. Various types of solid and liquid waste are dumped into the rivers of the basin, affecting the communities along the basin to varying degrees, with serious situations such as that of the community of Cohana. And here the knowledge of experts comes to the fore in the voice of Carlos Revilla, who asks us: How does a river 'enter' a city and how does it 'leave' it? What does it bring us and what does it take away? Looking at the case of the Bolivian cities of El Alto, Viacha and Laja, Revilla insists on the need for "awareness-raising", "monitoring" and "control" measures. Do we know what these mean? Water shows that everything is connected: pollution, scarcity and excess, the body and the territory, different economic activities overlap and generate territories in conflict. In these scenarios, the different tools invite us to ask ourselves: who are the actors involved? Which of them are present and which are absent? The fact that some actors are not very visible in the territory often has to do with a problem of scale, a term that comes from geography and refers to the area we consider when analysing a particular problem. States and multilateral organisations, among others, although they may not appear to be present, act in territorial conflicts involving water; this is why it is possible to say that water is multi-scalar. Let us look at other dimensions. Bolivian leader Gregoria Paxipatty shows us how social, productive and economic histories accumulate on top of each other in the territory. Fishing involves a very different relationship with the lake than farming or herding animals. And when water dynamics change, production systems change, and with them, ways of life. For all these reasons, we can say that water will become increasingly important in territorial conflicts in Latin America and the world in general. You can find other perspectives on water in the "To watch and read" section on page 24 of this document. August / 2025 A basin refers to a region or territory that encompasses all surface and groundwater that flows to the same point of exit, whether a river, lake or sea. It articulates both social and natural elements. The basin articulates high and low lands and the entire complex system of water bodies such as rivers, estuaries, lakes and streams. Governance is the set of processes, institutions and actors—state and non-state—that are involved in decision-making and the management of collective resources. It involves a network of relationships in which international organisations, corporations, NGOs, local communities and the state itself interact. However, in Latin America in general, the discourse of governance has been co-opted by neoliberalism, serving to legitimise the withdrawal of the state in the name of 'participation' and 'efficiency', while opening the way for private actors to become involved in the management of public affairs. These reflect the tensions and conflicts that arise from the opposition between different social actors, communities, companies and others, as well as the way in which water is conceived and managed as a common good or as a commodity. School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water August / 2025 School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water The Salado Basin. Argentina Water, a relational element Water, a living being Water and inequality Water and its multiple uses Water taken as a commodity Territorial tensions over water Water and its multiple temporalities KEY WORDS CASE STUDIES Infrastructure and logic of hydrological dispossession, Bolivia The Mallolafquenh or Villarrica Lake Basin. Chile August / 2025 School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water August / 2025 School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water Economic Practice / activity Productive Focus / map Environmental Focus / Map Hydrological Focus / Map Actors involved Natural conditions at play August / 2025 School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water August / 2025 School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water August / 2025 We also invite you to explore the "Voces-Territorios" platform, which is a participatory tool for making geolocated information visible and sharing it in various formats (such as photographs, audio, videos), building a collaborative map of the dynamics, interventions and conflicts in the territory. To do so, you must consult the app's requirements before downloading it and creating a user profile. In it, you can describe the situation or intervention and adapt it to the five dimensions proposed: territorial processes, sociocultural processes, emotions, types of struggle, types of action. You can enter the Collective Map section and explore the dimensions in which the information is organised, for example, sociocultural processes, emotions, etc. School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water August / 2025 School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water August / 2025 School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water You should adapt it to the five dimensions proposed: territorial processes, sociocultural processes, emotions, types of struggle, types of action. August / 2025 School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water Water in the documentary “La Cuenca” de Left Hand Rotation https://www.contested-territories.net/la-cuenca/ The documentary approaches water from a relational and political perspective. Through multidimensional approaches, it integrates several key notions about water. Water, far from being simply a resource, is a vital element that sustains life and has a spiritual dimension. It is presented as a vehicle for emotional, cultural and symbolic connections, where everyday narratives converge in different sacred, natural and material dimensions. Water is also shown as a collective belonging, vital for all eco-dependent beings that make up the basin. The documentary articulates the idea of the basin not only as a hydrological unit, but as a geographical-political subject, where all tributaries and communities are "tributaries of the same body". It seeks to overcome the separation between the human and the non-human, proposing a political narrative based on the integration of all eco-dependent beings. The documentary uses water and the basin as a political bridge: it starts from the everyday to build the political. Water protection becomes a form of ecological struggle that highlights territorial conflicts, opposition to real estate or tourism projects, and the defence of ancestral territories. In short, "La Cuenca" revisits an ecological ethic that recognises the interdependence of all beings, with water as a central and articulating element. On this basis, "La Cuenca" also shows the conflicts between different actors. The documentary clearly shows that these actors do not compete on equal terms, that the social, political, cultural, geographical and economic structures in which the different actors participate in tensions and conflicts already establish relations of inequality. August / 2025 School Booklet 3 of 3: Disputes over water Water guardians and caretakers A multi-voiced account of the struggles for water and life in Bolivia Left Hand Rotation in collaboration with IIADI https://vimeo.com/1072988301 Dawn in El Alto. The modernity of the latest communication infrastructure coexists with the outlines of a huge self-built city. Flows of people, streams of vehicles, traffic organised for greater efficiency, the struggle of time against space. Urban landscapes. Water. Plastics, rivers that are life and, at the same time, dying in degraded landscapes. Water infrastructure that carries pollution. Rivers of colours. In these landscapes, as throughout the world, territories are undergoing acute processes of transformation in their productive matrix. The images come and go between the details and the landscapes that connect glaciers with channelled rivers entering and leaving the city, the communities, the fields. Left Hand Rotation, in collaboration with the IIADI (Institute for Research and Action for Integral Development), offers us four windows through which to observe the future of the guardians and caretakers of water. 1 UMA UÑJIRINAKA: Tiquipa and the struggles from below Luis Flores Mendoza, Macario Gutiérrez Amaru, Victoria Lecoña Lecoña The indigenous community of Tiquipa is located in the southern sector of the province of Los Andes. The camera focuses on situations in which the challenges of the present intertwine with the past and present of the Chiripa culture, an ancient pre-Inca civilisation historically located around Lake Titicaca. We attend assemblies where traditional forms of organisation such as the Ayllú are articulated with minute books and bureaucratic forms. Lake Titicaca is present with its challenges and is also a place of remembrance and memory; these images are a record of the changes taking place in the lake and in the community, in the bodies that now feed on meat when they used to feed on fish. El Alto and its uncontrolled growth. This municipality, together with Viacha, is closely linked to the pollution of Lake Titicaca; dirt, smell and disease that have been brought by the Pallina and Katari rivers for some time and then flow into Titicaca. The effects and consequences are diverse, profound and affect everyone. Weeds grow and spread, preventing access to water and grazing. Climate change brings harsher and longer droughts, reducing the water level of Lake Titicaca. Everything is changing. The water guardians are active witnesses to a territory in transformation. They organise themselves into committees, clean drinking troughs and other water infrastructure, challenge municipalities and entities located along the basin, demand that they incorporate the environmental dimension into their territorial work, and think and imagine their territory and ways to make it possible. For these water guardians, the challenge is clear: "we have to rise up from below". August / 2025