What is it about?
The indigenous political concept Buen Vivir, Sumak Kawsay, Alli Kawsay (rougly: "Good Life" or "Harmonious Life") has been quite succesfully integrated in the debates around degrowth and post-development. The most relevant translators are Alberto Acosta and Eduardo Gudynas. This integration goes hand in hand with a translation - some key aspects that the concept has for the indigenous movement disappear, others are newly introduced. The effects of this translation -the invisibilization and forced commonalization of the indigenous movement- are studied in this text.
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Why is it important?
The indigenous movement in Ecuador worked a long time under harsh circumstances to develop its discourse and main political concepts. The usage of those concepts by external actors can mean a form of epistemic violence, an invisibilization of the movement and its demands connected to the concept at hand. A social movement of marginalized and discriminated people is once again relegated to a place of provider of discursive raw material.
Perspectives
This is the most clear application of my interest in the diffusion of ideas on Buen Vivir: how does it spread, who are the main actors - and how do their versions of Buen Vivir relate to the earlier indigenous version?
Dr. Philipp Altmann
Universidad Central del Ecuador
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Commons as Colonisation - The Well-Intentioned Appropriation of Buen Vivir, Bulletin of Latin American Research, February 2019, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/blar.12941.
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