Andean Intercultural Ecosocialism in times of Buen-Vivir?: A Red-Green-Culturalist Approach

Abstract:

Amidst an increasingly rejected neoliberalism from the 1990s onwards, nationally organized and internationally connected Indigenous movements strengthened their political positions in Bolivia and Ecuador. Against this backdrop, new left-leaning Andean governments had to invent new formulas for how to bring Indigenous peoples speaking with their own voices under their banner, that is, incorporating them into a unified force. A dominant re-orientation was to introduce a radical model of resource governance, sometimes equated with ecosocialism (Löwy 2014), arguably respecting the rights of nature and the Indigenous peoples, and challenging traditional notions of development understood as economic growth. This approach was incorporated in the new constitutions of Ecuador (2008) and Bolivia (2009) and was applauded worldwide by ecoactivists and other social movement advocates of social justice and group-differentiated rights. Some observers projected an ecosocialism with a new twist, that overcame the dichotomy between red and green (see Fernandes in this issue), merging not only class struggle and environmental concerns, but also Indigenous knowledges and the Indigenous moral-philosophical conceptualizations of Sumak Kawsay/Buen-vivir1. For some years, Buen-vivir evolved into a redgreen-culturalist epistemic-ontological platform, and consequently, an attractive political, strategic and potentially unifying asset for the left. This study examines how the historical dilemma of creating a unified leftist force has been addressed in contemporary Ecuador, and to a limited extent in Bolivia—that is, in settings marked by politically …

Año de publicación:

2020

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