From fights for land to mutualistic collaborations between academia and social agents

Drawing on our experience working with social movements struggling for state recognition of territorial rights across countries in Latin American, we argue that there are at least three essential aspects for conceptualising fair and effective collaborations between academia and practitioners; first is the capacity to cultivate nurturing relationships, where agents openly discuss their collaboration interests and aims, while genuinely helping each other achieve them (what we call ‘mutualism’). Second is observing the context and identifying the role of each agent within the broader ecosystem of relationships in which any collaboration takes place. This is essential to spatially and temporally locate the collaboration (in its broader network and as part of a longer process that goes beyond its timeline). This process entails being frank about the possibilities and limits of collaboration as well. The third aspect is to destabilise the westernised hierarchy in knowledge production, by treating practitioners’ knowledge on equal footing. This in turn provides opportunities for fruitful theoretical developments. Keeping these three elements in mind can help give rise to collaborations that last longer, prove more generative for those involved, and effectively challenge the inequalities that pervade in knowledge production.