Meet The Arne Næss Chair 2016 at the University of Oslo: Eduardo Gudynas South America has made significant social progress in recent years, resulting in poverty reduction and improvement in social protection programs. However, many organizations and researchers are concerned that progressive governments in South America have intensified the explotation of natural resources to fund […]
by Eduardo Gudynas – The enormous mining corporation tried every which way they could to evict this family of subsistence farmers. They used the police, guards, journalists, judgements, and many other weapons. But this is a steadfast family, with a woman deeply rooted in her land in Peru’s northern Andes, who resisted with all her […]
A review of some of the central ideas being discussed in a process of energy transitions towards Good Living for the Andean regions and the neighbouring Amazonian areas. It is an exercise in proposing post-carbon and post-extractivist societies based on sensibilities that seek to get out of the trap of conventional ideas of development, and […]
by Eduardo Gudynas – Weeks ago I shared some reflections on how some governments and progressive intellectuals who take ideas from the Global left, and use their limitations or deform them. It is a “friendly colonialism” because it allows them to maintain a leftist rhetoric while leaving their contradictions in the background (1). The use […]
by Eduardo Gudynas – It is slowly becoming evident that today’s extractivism [economy based upon the extraction and export of natural resources such as oil, gas and minerals] is advancing in a context of increasing violence. This is not an exaggeration: distinct forms of violence are being employed to impose and protect extractivism, a situation […]
Proponents of the South American philosophy of Buen Vivir have proposed an action plan for moving towards a more sustainable, more balanced economy – report by Oliver Balch, The Guardina, 11 February 2015. Business, as a rule, doesn’t do utopia. The reason is simple: as the French author and philosopher Albert Camus put it, “utopia […]
by Eduardo Gudynas – As ideas about development are so deeply rooted, attempts to seek alternatives are almost like swimming against the prevailing cultural current. To effectively pursue these alternatives, radical changes are necessary from the source. Instead of quoting Marx or Lenin, I consider more appropriate to draw inspiration from an old word of […]
An heterodox guide to the debates on development and its alternatives in the continent. A review of some of the main schools of thought in which the problem of development and alternatives to it have been addressed. In particular, those postures that seem to have been the most influential in Latin America, especially when they […]
Extractivisms are one of the main features in dominant development strategies in Latin America. Eduardo Gudynas (CLAES), presents the “post-extractivist” proposals that are being discussed in the region. Is an exploration in what is called “transitions” to another development, or “transitions to Buen Vivir.” Chapter in the book Beyond Development. Alternative visions from Latin America, […]
by David Hill – After the collapse of a groundbreaking attempt to protect the Yasuni National Park, Chinese companies could be ready to drill for oil. The announcement by Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, that he has abandoned a ground-breaking scheme stopping oil operations in the Amazon has led to a wave of protests across the […]