Intellectual property and cultural policy are essential to the practice of cultural rights, however, in both legal frameworks, indigenous peoples have often found that the state has little consideration for their voices and their world views. In contrast, though no more representative of indigenous perspectives, the social sciences, while engaging with indigenous voices, have often treated them as a source to be appropriated with disregard of their rights and agency. Through an activist and collaborative methodology that includes the concerns of a wide group of indigenous and non-indigenous persons, this article explores how the oral history project of the Fogata Kejtsitani in the Purhépecha community of Cherán, México, contributes to discussions on the appropriation and dissemination of culture. This community has managed the recognition of their right to autonomy, and in so doing, has founded a continuous process of law creation, on which Kejtsitani takes part. La propiedad intelectual y la política cultural son esenciales para la práctica de derechos culturales, sin embargo, en ambos marcos jurídicos los pueblos indígenas frecuentemente han encontrado que el Estado tiene poca consideración por sus voces y cosmovisiones. En contraste, aunque sin ser más representativo de las perspectivas indígenas, las ciencias sociales que se han relacionado con voces indígenas, frecuentemente las han tratado como una fuente para ser apropiada, descartando sus derechos y agencia. A través de una metodología activista y colaborativa que incluye las inquietudes de un amplio grupo de personas indígenas y no-indígenas, este artículo explora cómo el proyecto de historia oral de la Fogata Kejtsitani en la comunidad Purhépecha de Cherán, México, contribuye a las discusiones sobre la apropiación y diseminación de la cultura. Esta comunidad ha logrado el reconocimiento de su derecho de autonomía y, al hacerlo, ha fundado un proceso continuo de creación de derecho del cual Kejtsitani también forma parte.

Criminology have long celebrated the lone hero researcher. Doing and writing up research in solitude has been the key to academic success and institutional promotions. However, the social sciences in general have increasingly moved towards more collaborative ways of doing research, and co-authorship has become more common. In this study, we summarize and discuss the pros and cons of working in teams when doing qualitative research. Drawing upon our own experiences from Mexico and Norway, we argue for a radical approach to team research and co-authorship, which we describe as team writing. Most importantly, we suggest opening up to include stakeholders and community partners, thus challenging the borders between researchers and those researched. This is arguably particularly important for research done in the academic, geographical and topical periphery of criminology. Team research and writing answers some of the critique of power inequality, representativity and lack of diversity in contemporary academic research. We also believe that team research, and writing, can make criminological research more multifaceted, reflexive, and thus better.

In the town of Oñati (Basque Country, Spain) we find the community project of Eltzia: a public initiative aimed at enriching local cultural life through the articulation of its creative people. Eltzia is enlightening for having a model of organisation that can be related to the Basque Country’s cooperative movement, but also for showing the benefits of popular participation in culture policymaking. This research explores Eltzia as an example of democratization of cultural policy through the involvement of citizens; an expression of cultural rights that engages with how law is interpreted. Eltzia emerged from a municipal initiative and its creation was influenced by the participation of the local groups and a private company providing mediation services in social processes of community development. The analysis will focus on the contributions that are drawn from Eltzia in relation to the fields of cultural policy and socio-legal studies. El proyecto comunitario de Eltzia se desarrolla en Oñati (País Vasco, España): se trata de una iniciativa pública que tiene por objetivo enriquecer la vida cultural local a partir de la articulación de las personas con intereses creativos. Eltzia es ilustrador de un modelo de organización que se puede relacionar con el movimiento de cooperativas del País Vasco, pero que también muestra los beneficios de la participación popular en los procesos de diseño de política pública. Esta investigación explora Eltzia como un ejemplo de la democratización de la política cultural a través de la participación ciudadana; una expresión de derechos culturales que atiende a los procesos de interpretación del derecho. Eltzia surge de una iniciativa municipal y su creación fue influenciada por la participación de grupos locales y una compañía privada dedicada a los servicios de mediación en procesos sociales de desarrollo comunitario. El análisis se enfocará en las contribuciones que se derivan de Eltzia en relación con los campos de la política cultural y los estudios socio-jurídicos.

This issue of Oñati Socio-legal Series is the result of the discussions and encounters from the workshop Sociology of law in Latin America and the Caribbean: current debates and future perspective. In view of the growth and potential that emerges from the global south realities, we believe it necessary to put forward questions over sociology of law’s state of the art and its expectations for the future in Latin America. We hope that the work agenda that unveils in this issue contributes to a critical sociology of law. This entails not only bringing out the academic rigour of interdisciplinary approaches; but also a social commitment with the transformation of Latin-American societies.

This special issue has its origins in the workshop The policy of cultural rights: socio-legal perspectives on cultural diversity held at the IISL in July 2017, and chaired by Miren Manias-Muñoz (UPV/EHU) and Lucero Ibarra (CIDE Mexico). It is a combination of five papers whose first versions were originally presented at that workshop, and three additional manuscripts submitted individually to our journal, which, in view of their subject and research rationale, and after due peer review, have been considered as particularly adequate and suitable to be included in this special-issue. All in one, this collection addresses the policy of cultural production, state regulation, and social contestation at the local and national scale, offering interesting insights about Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and Spain. Este número especial de Oñati Socio-Legal Series tiene su origen en el seminario titulado The policy of cultural rights: socio-legal perspectives on cultural diversity, celebrado en el IISJ en julio de 2017, coordinado por Miren Manias-Muñoz (UPV/EHU) y Lucero Ibarra (CIDE México). Es una combinación de cinco artículos cuyas versiones originales fueron presentadas en dicho seminario, y tres artículos enviados de forma individual a nuestra revista y que, en atención a su tema y la lógica de su investigación, y tras la debida revisión por pares, han sido considerados como especialmente adecuados para su inclusión en este número. En resumen, esta colección se refiere a las políticas de producción cultural, regulación estatal y contestación social en una escala local y nacional, y ofrece interesantes perspectivas sobre Argentina, Brasil, Canadá, México y España.