Open Knowledge, Decolonial, and Intercultural Approaches to Communication Technologies for Mobility: The Achuar Kara Solar Project

Abstract

In this chapter we explore how interculturality and open dialogues of knowledge can be understood as key strategies for building ecologies of knowledge in the Kara Community Energy Infrastructure Project. This project seeks to expand the opportunities for sustainable mobility and communication of the Achuar nation in the Amazon. The chapter demonstrates how through fostering dialogues between Achuar and hegemonic knowledge frameworks, new frameworks are being created, adapted, and appropriated within Achuar daily life. The Kara Solar project thus shows a concrete example of building clean and sustainable and fossil-free river transport and communication systems, making it a potentially useful model beyond the Amazon. This chapter also sets out a new paradigm for the generation of knowledge and horizontally conceived communication technologies, whereby technologies and knowledge are jointly created, rather than simply consumed, and in their creation also address issues of internal participatory democracy.