GOING DOWN TO THE TERRITORY: STUDENT RESEARCH TRAINING IN THE "NEIGHBORHOOD MEMORIES IN ACTION" VOLUNTEER PROJECT

Abstract

This study addresses the meanings attributed to the territory by a group of university students from the National University of the Center of the Province of Buenos Aires (UNICEN), when they participated in the outreach project "Neighborhood memories in action." Ethnographic approach addresses the experiential dimension of urban space, describing representations and practices on a urban spatiality with poor provision of public services in the central region of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The analysis indicates the native expression going down to the territory constitutes a vernacular expression that synthesizes two key elements of territorial work: sensory and symbolic experience of a descent, and the moral and material imperative of provision. The conclusions of the study indicate that in this case the student research training was mediated by a hierarchy of emergencies that conditioned their descriptive and analytical records production.