Field work in geography. Region with experience in socio-environmental conflicts

Abstract

This article emphasizes the importance of the geographical field work in a region with socio-environmental conflict, such us the problem with water in Sierras Chicas, Cordoba. The main focus is a pedagogical experience, the Socio-Communal Practice (SCP), performed by professors, students and assistants of the subject Rural Geography, of the Bachelor’s in Geography course of studies of the Philosophy and Humanity School (PHS), in the city of La Granja, in Colón, Córdoba. The SCP is an experience that makes the students approach the social field of the territory conflicts. It is an activity that goes beyond the extension project, since it involves all the students doing the subject. And it is also a way to combine -in our case, from the geographic work- the teaching, investigation and extension functions typical of the university students. Through the SCP, we aim to make the Rural Geography students approach the field work, with local social organizations that deeply know the problems of their cities and that work together with our investigation group. In addition, this contact together with the individual thoughts, the group discussion and the debates between the university students, will broaden, in the whole society, the knowledge about the reality in which they live and with which they struggle. This article starts by defining what it is understood by SCP. Then, taking into account our practice, we develop what we consider to be the two logics that support the field work. One refers to the building of knowledge and to the different ways of learning and knowing. The other is related to the understanding of the socio-territory conflict in the area where the practice will be done: the Mesa del Agua and La Granja environment. We include a section about the description of the experience and its results, and we conclude with some reflections made taking into account the continuity of the practice