Re-Imagining Community and Sustainability from the Andean Perspective of Buen Vivir

Abstract

Based on the worldview and cosmology of Andean indigenous peoples, the philosophy of Sumak Kawsay (‘Good Living’ in Quechua) or Buen Vivir (as known in Spanish) promotes a cultural model of life in which social equality and justice are pursued by means of a harmonious relationship between humanity and nature. More importantly, the concept of Buen Vivir emerges as a response to previous attempts to transform Latin American reality from a foreign and invasive Western perspective. With an emphasis on human well-being and in opposition to dominant neoliberal ideals, Buen Vivir’s anti-capitalist and ecological strategy of sustainable development has encountered widespread resonance and interest in Latin America and beyond. Against this backdrop, this paper seeks to examine how the social philosophy of Buen Vivir has redefined the role of Latin America from being a passive object of experimentation to that of an active agent producing its own vision of development and socio-economic models. Central attention is given to the development of ecovillages as intentional communities that put into practice the principles of Buen Vivir, in particular those in Ecuador and Bolivia. Drawing on the connections between degrowth theory and indigenous attitudes towards economy and the environment, the paper also discusses the impact of the Buen Vivir ideology on Andean perceptions of ecotourism in a context for tourism development, especially in a post COVID-19 world in which small-scale, localized tourism can reformulate the sense of meaningful human interactions (Everingham and Chassagne, 2020). The overarching objective of the analysis is to assess the alternative vision proposed by Buen Vivir in a larger context of environmental planning practices and imaginaries.