Cartography and War Machines

Challenges and Experiences around Militant Research in Southern Europe

Translated by Maribel Casas-Cortés and Sebastian Cobarrubias / Notas Rojas Collective Chapel HillJavier Toret / Nicolás Sguiglia

“There is a revolutionary becoming not to be confused with the future of revolutions nor must it be carried out by militants”

“Nomadism is precisely this combination between war machine and smooth space”
-- Gilles Deleuze

The intellectual‑creative‑communicative skills of the new activists, the need to rename the world from below in order to reestablish a non‑mediated communication with society, together with the desire to produce understandings of the dizzying current social transformations we are living through, constitute the basis for a proliferation of experiences focused on the need to strongly link the intellect and collective action. What is being generated is truly a “becoming militant researchers”[1]; the prosthetic use of research methodologies by social movements, and the production of cartographies or maps.

transform.eipcp.net - Cartography and War Machines

I recently read this article which is really amazing and summarizes so much incredible work going on in Europe. It discusses numerous projects including Estrecho Indymedia and Precarias A La Deriva in Spain working on precarity and migration using cartography as a tool for investigation and organizing. It is especially helpful in showing how these very important ideas from Deleuze can be practically applied. It was also helpful because I'm working on a film about Occupied Social Centers in Southern Europe and I interviewed some of the groups mentioned in this article, but it gives me a broader understanding of their context and their goals.

technorati tags: deleuze, militantresearch, spain, europe, cartography, nomad, estrecho, malaga, madrid