The Buen vivir: a Latin American utopia in the global discursive field of sustainability

Abstract

In this paper, we present a reading of the contemporary discourse building on the concept of Buen vivir as a cultural model emerging from Latin America in response to the key problems of collective life. We draw on Guy Bajoits theory of social change and on Peter Wagners interpretive approach to characterize modernity and its implications for the construction of cultural models; among others, that of cultural pluralism. In this plurality, dominant and dominated cultural models coexist, with their specific ideologies and utopias. The Buen vivir discourse was built as a modern (autonomous and rational) cultural model with its own utopia. From its indigenous origins, this new discourse was theorized in the academic sphere and traduced into normative principles that have permeated also the political sphere, which is especially visible in the cases of Ecuador and Bolivia. It is part of a wider critical stream opposing the dominant cultural model, and formulates specific answers to the central problems of collective life, in particular the problem of sustainability. In our analysis, we insert the Buen vivir discourse into the global (inter-cultural) dialogical dynamics aimed at solving the great problems of collective life; and we consider its contributions and limits to such debates, as well as its relations with other modern cultural models.