Logo degrowth
Scientific paper

Text

Buen Vivir, Degrowth and Ecological Swaraj: Alternatives to sustainable development and the Green Economy

Authors:
Ashish Kothari, Federico Demaria, Alberto Acosta

Entry type:
Scientific paper

Year of publication:
2014

Publishers:
Development

Language:
English

External content:
To the content

well-being; environmental justice; sustainability; economic growth; equity; sustainable development

Abstract: This article proposes that the ‘Green Economy’ is not an adequate response to the unsustainability and inequity created by ‘development’ (a western cultural construct), and puts forward alternative socio-environmental futures to (and not of) development. ‘Sustainable development’ is an oxymoron. Therefore, instead of the ‘post-2015 development agenda’, we argue in favour of the ‘2015 post-development agenda’. We discuss Buen Vivir from Latin America, Degrowth from Europe and Ecological Swaraj (or Radical Ecological Democracy) from India. The intention is to outline that there is politics beyond a unilinear future, unsustainable and unjust, consisting primarily of economic growth.



Development (2014) 57(3–4), 362–375

Share on the corporate technosphere