ARES- CCD Project: Socio-economic development, community dynamics, and cultural recognition in Ocongate. Multidisciplinary analysis of the challenges of economic modernization of a region in the Andes.

Over the past three decades, Peru has experienced increasing economic liberalization, which has caused, among other consequences, the mercantilization of local economies. This socio-economic and cultural transformation is particularly acute in the Ocongate district, Quispicanchi province, in the Cuzco region. In addition to the impact common to the different regions of the national liberalization policies, the Ocongate district is located on the route of the South Inter-Oceanic Route. The opening of this road, inaugurated in 2006, has led to an increase in mobility and strengthened the attractiveness of new forms of agricultural and livestock production through the connection to markets, not without impact on the quality of life and well-being of the peasants (campesinos) as well as on the sustainability of their environment and way of life.
Within the framework of the ARES-CCD Institutional Support to the University of San Antonio Abad de Cusco (UNSAAC), we have highlighted, among members of peasant communities, a tension between an identity and cultural attachment to a traditional communal way of life, and a growing attraction for the socio-economic emancipation that commercial agriculture, migration and tourism seem to offer.
This project aims at the interdisciplinary exploration of family and community dynamics, including the dynamics of agricultural and non-agricultural development, gender relations, ecohealth and social justice in its distributive and recognition dimensions. Through an approach that is both emic and ethical, this research project will result in 3 PhDs (in anthropology, socio-economics and political philosophy), and gender research, which will be carried out in close collaboration in order to produce an original interdisciplinary methodology, generating a holistic vision of ongoing community changes and knowledge directly useful to communities and decision-makers for their future orientation.