Abstract
Bob Thomson argues that understanding the limits to growth for our finite planet is slowly gaining currency due to the (mostly) European sustainable degrowth ‘movement’ and a plurinational Latin American cosmovision which is largely indigenous but also criollo. These visions challenge us to decolonize our minds, as well as our economies. Thomson introduces a number of writers and perspectives on ‘degrowth’ and suggests that a synthesis of indigenous concepts of ‘living well’ with western critiques of our unsustainable industrial ‘model’ may hold promise for a way out of the multiple environmental, economic and social crises that we face.
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Notes
Joan Martinez-Alier et al. have provided a good overview or ‘mapping’ of Western degrowth approaches in a recent issue of the journal Ecological Economics.
Gudynas’ review of Latin American approaches to ‘buen vivir’ is available in Spanish http://www.alainet.org/active/48052 and English http://www.alainet.org/active/48054.
Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, ‘Pachakuti: The historical horizons of internal colonialism’, http://www.web.ca/~bthomson/bobs_files/Cusicanqui_Historical_Memory.pdf.
See Francois Houtart, ‘For a general well-being of humanity’, http://alainet.org/active/36554&lang=en, for a discussion of ‘Living Well’ or ‘Buen Vivir’ or ‘Sumak Kawsay’.
Carol Smith in NACLA, December 1991, cites Mayan resistance as one root of this historical ‘memory’.
Rene Ramirez in Ecuador's ‘National “Buen Vivir” Plan’ (Leon, 2010).
Immanuel Wallerstein has said this ‘may turn out to be the great debate of the twenty-first century’.
See Diamond (1997); Weisman (2007); Victor (2008); Homer-Dixon (2007) for a list of some studies in this area.
Even convincing sympathetic colleagues in the progressive ‘development’ discourse is proving difficult based on one response to a January 2010 London UK public meeting. http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=1731
Ministry of External Affairs of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, ‘Manual de construcción del Vivir Bien’: 202. http://alainet.org/active/34032&lang=es
Some French proponents of ‘decroissance’ actually believe English speakers are incapable of understanding the concept.
Personal conversation with Mireille Lapointe and Bob Lovelace, traditional leaders of the Ardoch Algonquin, June 2010.
In mentioning the Millenium Development Goals, one should also review the Millenium Consumption Goals recently proposed by a Sri Lankan economist. http://www.milleniumconsumptiongoals.org
Pablo Davalos: Reflections on Sumak Kawsay (good living) and theories of development http://alainet.org/active/33609.
Ediciones MASAS: ‘El Postmodernismo Indigenista del MAS: Una crítica marxista’, October 2009, http://laclase.info/internacionales/el-postmodernismo-indigenista-del-mas-una-critica-marxista.
See also, ‘Two Takes on the Bolivian Uprising in Potosi’, Socialist Project · E-Bulletin No. 404, 22 August 2010, http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/404.php.
See, for example, the report of an April 2009 conference ‘Fifteen Years After the Zapatistas’, http://hir.harvard.edu/blog/jason-lakin/fifteen-years-after-the-zapatistas.
The Zapatistas Break Their Silence, January 2003, http://www.thenation.com/article/zapatistas-break-their-silence.
Degrowth: Is it useful or feasible? a provocative blog review of a January 2010 degrowth meeting in London, http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=1731.
New Economics Foundation, ‘The Great Transition’ and ‘Growth Isn’t Possible’, http://www.neweconomics.org/.
Journal of Cleaner Production, ‘Growth, Recession or Degrowth for Sustainability and Equity?’, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652610000417.
References
Albó, Xavier (2008) ‘To Live Well = To Coexist Well’, CIPCA Notas 217, http://www.web.ca/~bthomson/degrowth/To_live_well_is_To_coexist_well_Xavier_Albo.html, accessed 29 September 2011.
Chuji, Monica G. (2009) ‘Modernity, Development, Interculturality and Sumak Kawsay, or Living Well but not Better’, presentation to the ‘International forum on Interculturality & Development’, Uribia, Colombia, 23 May. http://www.web.ca/%7Ebthomson/degrowth/Monica_Chuji_english.html.
Deutscher, Guy (2010) ‘Does Your Language Shape How You Think?’, New York Times Sunday Magazine, 29 August.
Diamond, Jared (1997) Guns, Germs & Steel: The fates of human societies, New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Gonick, Cy (2010) ‘Exploring Ecosocialism as a System of Thought’, Canadian Dimension 44 (5) http://canadiandimension.com/articles/3268.
Homer-Dixon, Thomas (2007) The Upside of Down, Washington DC: Island Press.
Leon, Irene (2010) ‘Re-significaciones, cambios societales y alternativas civilizatorias’, America Latina en Movimiento #457, July, Quito: ALAI.
Victor, Peter A. (2008) Managing Without Growth: Slower by design, not disaster, Gloucestershire, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
Weisman, Alan (2007) The World Without Us, New York: St. Martin's Press.
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Discusses the European sustainable degrowth ‘movement’ and the plurinational Latin American cosmovision
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Thomson, B. Pachakuti: Indigenous perspectives, buen vivir, sumaq kawsay and degrowth. Development 54, 448–454 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2011.85
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2011.85