SHIFTING URBAN ECOLOGIES

For the last two years, an interdisciplinary research and design group of eight students from Parsons' graduate urban programs have focused on Mercado San Roque as a site for their thesis research. Through their collaboration with the Quito-based activist group Red de Saberes [Network of Knowledges] that consists of a range of scholars, artists, researchers and cultural agents, the student collective was able to explore the Mercado as an entry point into urban tensions and relations of power... As artists, scholars, and activists - how do we insert ourselves into a troubled site that is foreign to us, and begin to envision projects that could create fertile grounds for social justice? How do we collaborate across disciplines, countries, and language barriers to create a more just city? Located in the heart of Quito,.