Alternative discourse in 'Cultiva Tu Mente': A youth collective advocating for the unrestricted use of cannabis in Pereira, Colombia

Abstract

The article presents the results of the Cultiva Tu Mente research project, which sought to construct an alternative discourse by a collective that defends recreational cannabis use in public spaces. The research reconsiders the theory of collective action frames and framing processes (Goffman, 2006, p. 30; Gamson, 1992, p. 45). For that, it carries out ethnography (Restrepo, 2012). Ultimately, it seeks to understand how the members of a counter-hegemonic collective construct a discursive public space by articulating the notion of injustice as an effect of the stigmatization and physical and symbolic violence they suffer. Likewise, the alternative discourse produced by the Collective Cultiva Tu Mente (CTM) is analyzed, integrating a conception of rights, the promotion of self-cultivation, and different ludic and recreational expressions that defend the search for the unrestricted use of the body. This case allows us to approach the dynamics of the construction of alternative policies by articulating agents and discursive practices that confront the forced normative models oriented to control subjectivities.