Presentation short abstract

This presentation examines the potential and limits of cuerpo-territorio in political ecology, showing how embodied and relational practices illuminate socio-environmental conflicts while requiring a situated, critical and politically committed use.

Presentation long abstract

This presentation critically examines how feminist approaches to cuerpo-territorio open powerful analytical and methodological possibilities for political ecology, while requiring careful reflection on their limits and ethical responsibilities. Drawing from research in Colombia and Catalonia, we show how embodied practices and relational ontologies shape socio-ecological disputes and collective resistance. Grounded in Latin American feminist epistemologies, we argue that cuerpo-territorio is primarily a political and ontological proposition rather than a neutral or universally applicable method. Emerging from the historic struggles of Indigenous women against patriarchal and colonial violence, its use in other contexts demands more than methodological adaptation: it requires political commitment, contextual sensitivity, and deep reflexivity regarding researchers’ positionalities. Empirically, we reflect on three research experiences: (1) body-mapping, collective mapping, and theatre-forum workshops with social movements in Catalonia; (2) collaborative work with Black women leaders engaged in mangrove restoration and environmental defence in Cartagena; and (3) reframing water governance in the Llobregat basin through the idea of the river as a living body. Across these cases, we illustrate how cuerpo-territorio operates as a situated, relational analytical tool—one that incorporates researchers’ own bodies and political entanglements into the research process. We argue that cuerpo-territorio enriches political ecology by illuminating multiscalar socio-environmental conflicts through embodied and relational perspectives. Yet its use must remain context-based, ethically grounded, and accountable to the feminist, Indigenous, and community struggles that created it. It is not a ready-made method, but a lens that must emerge from and respond to specific political and affective conditions of each territory.