We are currently facing a crisis that threatens not only the survival of our civilisation and humans as a species, but that of life on our planet as a whole. At the same time, the exploitation-based approach to development is facing its own limits. This is evidenced in the ever-increasing pace of natural destruction, deepening forms of oppression and the global resurgence of totalitarian and fascist approaches to social organisation. Can we continue to simply accept this trajectory as inherent to modern capitalism? Or have we drifted off too far and lost control of the juggernaut of capital accumulation and scientific development? Historically, powerful critical voices have come out of Latin America, calling for resistance against the exploitative and devastating capitalist world regime imposed over our people. Currently, these efforts have resulted in a deep reinterpretation of reality, based on the lived knowledge of ancestral indigenous nations and peoples of Abya Yala (Our America, as José Martí used to call it). Although these critical alternatives have been marginalised from the conventional discourse, they re-emerge in these times of crisis.

These alternative societal constructs are expressed in the constitutions of Ecuador (2008) and Bolivia (2009) through concepts such as buen vivir (Spanish), sumak kawsay (Kichwa) and suma qamaña (Aymara). There are similar notions among diverse indigenous people, such as the Mapuche (Chile– Argentina), the Guarani (Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia) and the Kuna (Panama and Colombia). This worldview is also found in the Mayan tradition in Guatemala and among the diverse indigenous groups that inhabit Chiapas in Mexico. Beyond Abya Yala, there are many other inclusive philosophies across the world, which, in one way or another, are related to the search for living well, or buen vivir. This includes the concept of ubuntu in Africa and svadeshi, swaraj and apargrama in India.

BUEN VIVIR: AN ALTERNATIVE VISION OF CIVILISATION FROM THE WORLD's PERIPHERY

In recent years, in the context of post-development discussions, attempts to rebuild the conceptual structure, practices, institutions and discourses of development have multiplied. While some focus on criticising specific approaches to development, others propose an alternative to the concept of development. It is in this second category that we find the approaches of buen vivir and sumak kawsay.