Presentation short abstract

Through a Transdisciplinary Editorial Lab, we present avenues for riverine epistemic justice and equitable knowledge exchanges among scholars and riverine leaders. It bridges scientific findings and grassroots needs, revealing tensions but also enabling horizontal dialogue and joint narrative

Presentation long abstract

Riverine communities in Colombia's Magdalena-Cauca Basin have experienced significant epistemic injustices. Their knowledge of river dynamics and seasonal patterns is routinely marginalized in infrastructure projects, such as dams, that affect their territories and everyday lives. Academic researchers investigating riverine transformations tend to privilege outputs such as peer-reviewed publications, leaving less space for dialogue with the communities most interested in their findings.

Leveraging transdisciplinary research to overcome these challenges, we document potential avenues for more equitable knowledge exchange among scholars, riverine leaders, and communication experts, based on initial findings from our ongoing Transdisciplinary Editorial Lab (TELab). This is an experimental project to co-create a digital campaign for mobile networks such as WhatsApp. It aims to catalyze a basin-wide dialogue grounded in scientific findings on impacts of dammed rivers and in riverine grassroots’ organizing needs.

The TELab interactions have made evident significant socio-technical tensions, including debates over what constitutes legitimate knowledge, conflicts between scientific temporalities and communities' urgencies, and the tension between disciplinary evidence and grassroots holistic perspectives. However, the project has enabled crucial moments for pluralizing knowledge, such as horizontal dialogue spaces that value diverse epistemologies, the recognition of leaders as "new ancestors" responsible for transmitting technical knowledge, and the active co-construction of key communication narratives.

Our findings demonstrate how transdisciplinary science communication can challenge technocratic tendencies in interdisciplinary water studies by framing scientific findings in light of the riverine leaders’ political and social agenda, and by creating analogue and digital exchange spaces to strengthen leadership networks across the basin.