Indianist sumak kawsay, an alternative to global capitalism

Abstract

The indianist sumak kawsay had a special political and intellectual relevance in Ecuador (and Bolivia) in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Since then, the influence of its approaches —and those of the different branches of good living— has grown and formed synergies with other heterodox trends such as degrowth, feminist economics and deep ecology, among others. The global pandemic of COVID-19 has highlighted the incompatibility of the capitalist system and the paradigms that sustain it with the life of the planet and of people. This article reflects on the proposals that are emerging around the construction of a global sumak kawsay as an alternative to development and capitalism, showing the potentialities and weaknesses of this philosophy, worldview and way of life from a postmodern perspective.