An Ontological Turn in the Debate on Buen Vivir – Sumak Kawsay in Ecuador: Ideology, Knowledge, and the Common

Abstract

Buen Vivir, a political paradigm at work in Bolivia and Ecuador that underpins the state and social regeneration after a prolonged and devastating period of neoliberalism, has become a hotly contested subject within academia and politics. Although it has been categorized as decolonial, post-neoliberal, and post-developmentalist, recent developments suggest that the Ecuadorian government is turning toward a highly extractivist and modernist model based on bureaucratic and technocratic logics. This article focuses on the debate spurred around Buen Vivir, arguing that it has been employed as a cultural representation by many academics, politicians, and social agents, thus foreclosing the possibility of engaging in more grounded and pragmatic discussions and hindering the articulation of alternative political configurations. Accordingly, it seeks to shift the debate from epistemological questions about the conditions of knowledge to thinking the nature of the world ontologically from the perspective of Buen Vivir.