NECO was created in 2010 and is led by professors Gianpaolo Knoller Adomilli and Eliza Mara Lozano Costa. It includes researchers and students from diverse disciplines. Its purpose is to improve research on coastal zone populations and traditional knowledge, focusing its studies on the peoples of the coastal plains of the pampa biome.

The group performs ethnographical, theoretical and interdisciplinary studies of various coastal zone peoples and their specific knowledge, including Indigenous peoples and those of African or European descent. Its research has been presented at scientific events and in publications, blogs, image expositions and ethnographic videos. It also organizes local, national and international events.

The group conducts several lines of research. Society, Environment and Territorialization: includes studies about the society-culture-nature relationship, focusing on collective representations and practices and de- and re-territorialization processes in political, historic and independent social contexts. Also includes analyses and interpretations of cultural expressions and conflicts between groups. Móbile: includes studies of the relationship between ethnography and mobility, both on urban and regional scales. Also emphasizes soft forms of displacement, particularly the persistence of walking, and explores the meaning of this practice in the contemporary world. Networks and Coastal Images: studies the imagery, landscapes, social patterns, creative arts and lifestyles of these populations through several paradigmatic series: culture-nature, universal-particular and immanent-transcendent. Conflict Ethnography and Power Relationships: studies the theories and practices of power relations and politics through kinship, local power, social networks and citizens’ relationship to the state. It also studies decision experiences and political participation regarding territories and common resources.

More information: Group's Mirror