Cúcuta
December 12, 2022

Cúcuta y Frontera Morada

Andres Boada

Edgelands Maps workshop in partnership with Frontera Morada in Cúcuta.

Young people from Bitácora Ciudadana de Frontera Morada programme in the city of Cúcuta.

With some young people from Bitácora Ciudadana de Frontera Morada programme in the city of Cúcuta, we held the first workshop in the Colombian border city. The young Colombians and Venezuelans who participated in the workshop led us to investigate the implicit and explicit agreements of the city, among locals and immigrants and those governing the formal and informal authority at the border.

This is how young people defined the cross-cutting concepts discussed during workshops

Results

Digital space map. Photo by Andres Boada

Physical territory map. Photo by Andres Boada

Profile of actors identified by participants:

https://issuu.com/mcamiroldan/docs/perfiles

What we learned

  • Surveillance can be provided by everyday actors in the lives of young people, such as teachers, care-givers, the people who live in Casa Morada (community leaders) and neighbours in the neighbourhood.
  • There are technologies that help us feel safe, such as sharing our location with people we know.
  • The apps that young people use are not always safe, because there are people like hackers who can access our personal information.
  • Most of the border trails (for illegal crossing) are controlled by illegal actors who control the passage of goods and people.
  • Technology can be used to guard our personal information or to mishandle information.
  • There are not safe zones everywhere; there are many dark zones nearby.
  • Technology is insecure.
  • We must deconstruct our spaces in order to understand them.
  • Coexistence is the constant analysis of the contexts and actors of spaces in order to understand their foundations.
  • Surveillance is both a mechanism for control a one of care.
  • Implicit and explicit agreements help us point at markers of what makes the social contract.
  • Technology can be fun and entertaining but not safe.
  • We need to inhabit our physical and digital spaces safely.
  • Technologies, the night and the border trails are not safe.