Paper short abstract:

‘Collaborative production of knowledge’ is a problematic term, charged with tensions around inequalities of ethnographer-subject relationships. I present an ethnography of a scholar-activist research relationship which, I argue, best approximates this academic and ethical goal.

Paper long abstract:

'Collaborative production of knowledge' is a problematic term, charged with tensions around inequalities of ethnographer-subject relationships. It is, however, an ethical and academic goal to work towards, to capitalise on the dialogue of knowledges between anthropologist and informants. This article is an ethnography of my research relationship with the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, a rural peasant community which is neutral to the armed conflict in Colombia, which I call 'organic intersubjectivity', and I argue that this is based on the circulation of narrative, affect, and shared political action. I outline my transition from NGO worker to independent researcher-activist; my institutional context; my 'activist' activities; and my field research methods. I contextualise this relationship within Colombian geopolitics, and examine how the four compass points of this relationship, academia and activism, chocolate and politics, weave together in order to create ownership of the research process, creating the conditions for the best approximation of collaborative production of knowledge.