Desde Abajo: Space and popular forms of knowledge production ‘from below’

Gerlof and López-Morales point to the importance of endogenous theoretical production to better understand and define processes happening in the Global South. In a less direct manner, Gerlof and López-Morales also point towards the ways and the places which and where communities are grappling with everyday politics. This commentary attempts to broach our need for endogenous concepts that speak to people's experiences and theorizations with the ways in which popular and cultural spaces exemplify collective action and expressions ‘from below’. Building on Castells reminder in The City and the Grassroots to keep the analysis of the crisis and the analysis of collective action together, this commentary uses versos and the fandango tradition from the southern region of Veracruz as an example of collectively produced knowledge and radical spaces. These spaces and collective expressions are essential in understanding systems of knowledge production and relations of convivencia that challenge forms of domination in times of crisis. Examining these spaces and forms of expression also help capture the loss, displacement, and violence that take place when these spaces are destroyed.