PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH: VISUALIZING TERRACED LANDSCAPES FROM ASIA, EUROPE AND LATIN AMERICA

The application of Participatory Action Research (PAR) in Peru, PR China, Philippines, Thailand, Italy and Spain illustrates the local perceptions on terraced landscapes and its potential to transformative action. This methodology creates a space to express and mobilise local knowledge related to nature in rural contexts as well as in other formats like the International Conferences on Terraced Landscapes since 2010. The article shows how different actors, when invited to visualize their ideas and practices about terraces, demonstrate original visions of the future responding to modern challenges like nurturing biodiversity, dealing with climate crisis and sustaining their identities. To conclude we deal with the essential epistemological reflection of facing diverse ways of knowing and power to jointly design local initiatives in the defence of terraced landscapes.