in Caracas, Venezuela (Latin American Population Journal) validates their viability as a community management tool. Nuestros Saberes Fills This Gap. Although these experiences are valuable, they operate in a fragmented way and are rarely articulated as an integrated system that connects community information production with territorial development management, ESG reporting, and the prevention of socio-environmental conflicts. Nuestros Saberes fills this gap, proposing a sequential circuit that integrates all components under a logic of intergenerational capacity building. 4. CONCEPTUAL AND NORMATIVE FRAMEWORK 4.1 Arnstein's participation ladder and the IAP2 spectrum A fundamental theoretical framework for positioning the Nuestros Saberes program is the ladder of citizen participation proposed by Sherry Arnstein (1969). In her seminal article, "A Ladder of Citizen Participation," Arnstein distinguishes eight rungs organized into three levels: non-participation (manipulation and therapy), symbolic participation (information, consultation, and appeasement), and citizen power (association, delegated power, and citizen control). Her central argument is that participation without a redistribution of power is an empty and frustrating process for those without power, as it allows the powerful to claim that all parties were considered without anything actually changing. The International Public Participation Association's (IAP2, 2018) spectrum of public participation updates and operationalizes this idea into five progressive levels: informing, consulting, engaging, collaborating, and empowering. Each level implies an increasing commitment to the public and, most importantly, an explicit promise regarding the degree of influence the community will have on the final decision. Table 2. Positioning of Nuestros Saberes in the Arnstein ladder and the IAP2 spectrum Arnstein (1969) IAP2 (2018) Social management of conventional mining Nuestros Saberes Evidence in the program Manipulatio n / Therapy — — — — Information Inform ESG reports, informational assemblies R1: Community library with internet access Access to information as a basis Consultation Consult Dialogue tables, participatory EIA, workshops — Level surpassed by the program 75
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