The promise of cultural networks in Latin America: towards a research framework for the study of region-specific cultural network ecosystems

Abstract

Latin America exhibits a particular regional ecology of cultural networks, characterized by a richness and diversity in network experiences. However, the lack of systematized information regarding these formations, together with the unstable and multivocal nature of the term “culture” and the network form suggests the need for new critical approaches. This paper presents a research framework for the study of region-specific cultural network ecosystems. The framework addresses an emerging politics of relationality among arts and cultural organizations and the processes through which these groups perceive and construct new notions of togetherness, as they attempt to move past old practices of grassroots governance. Three case studies of cultural networks in Latin America are used to illustrate how cultural networks function as domains for social action, vehicles for the construction of “futurity” and meaning structures that engineer new social relations. This paper considers key artefacts in the study of cultural networks, and presents transdisciplinarity as a pedagogical form employed by cultural networks in an effort to learn autonomously and share critical practices today.