Lateinamerika-Zentrum Zürich

Info

At the LZZ researchers from all disciplines explore Latin America and the intersections among cultural, political, socio-economic and ecological processes

Geschichte

At the Zurich Latin American Center, researchers from the humanities, the social and exact sciences, approach Latin America from an interdisciplinary vantage point, as a labboratory of modernity and globalization. For us, the region is not just an object of our research; rather, Latin America is also a partner in a dialogue, which has consistently developed heterodox, cutting-edge answers to questions of cultural heterogeneity, social and ecological sustainibility, democracy and urbanism. Examples include Latin America’s pioneering role in the aesthetics and politics of decolonization theory, new paradigms for informal urbanization and alternative urban development, as well as experiments in participatory democracy and the struggle for the memory of the victims of dictatorship and civil war. At the same time, in a region still largely dependent on exporting primary resources, the question of how to mediate between culture and nature and thus, about the possibility of ‘sustainable development’, is an especially urgent one. The Zurich Latin American Center explores these intersections between cultural and political, socio-economic and ecological processes. The key terms in this interdisciplinary dialogue are concepts such as transculturation and mobility; sustainibility and ressources; civil society, justice and development; and city-worlds and urbanism.