Participation as a political arena: plural knowledges and critical cartography in One Health approach

This article critically examines participation within the One Health approach, arguing that it functions not merely as a management device but as a political process through which knowledge, authority, and responsibility are negotiated. We frame OH as a heterogeneous social field shaped by unequal relations of recognition among multiple, overlapping epistemic communities and situated local knowledges. Drawing on methodological reflection on participatory practices, we use critical cartography as an empirical and analytical lens, arguing that mapping is not merely a representational tool but a relational practice that structures whose knowledge counts, thereby enabling or constraining the co-production and redistribution of epistemic authority in health governance.