Dialogue of Knowledge, challenges and perspectivesfrom university extension. A view from Latin American experts

Abstract

This article contains the opinions and experiences of
the reflective processes that have constituted the vast
experience of six Latin American extensionists, who,
through in-depth interviews conducted within the
framework of common interest of the countries that
make up the Central American Extension Network.
Among the countries that decided to provide their
contributions are Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile;
and the experience of Cuba as a caribbean country.
Therefore, it has been the task of the universities to
focus and resize their practices and methodologies
in direct work in the territory, which contribute
to recover those values, principles, knowledge,
traditional knowledge, religion, cosmology, music,
dance, productive technologies, natural medicine, etc.
so that they are valued and respected.
Latin American countries are plurinational and
multiethnic States, most of which have included in their
Political Constitution the recognition and promotion of
ancestral knowledge and practices, which contribute
to the strengthening and development of local
economies.
In this process, it is necessary to incorporate the
criterion where knowledge converges and new
knowledge is complemented and articulated through
the Dialogue of Knowledge, between ancestral
knowledge and modern academic knowledge, so that
what is sought is to find convergent points, where it is
possible to recover the most positive of the knowledge
that gives way to the revitalization of social and
productive processes in each neighborhood, village
and community.