The implications of sumak kawsay for our understanding of education, ethics, and politics

Abstract

"Sumak kawsay" is a conception that in the course of recent years has generated considerable interest in political, economic, and educational contexts, as well as an increasing attention on the part of activists and academics due to the "rupture" it causes on the world order. In different contexts, it is assumed as something that must be achieved through a process of transformation about the way in which social representations are constructed at a singular, community and planetary level by proposing to "think otherwise" the concepts of modernity that we take for granted, and by promoting a call to the restoration or invention of the sense of experience, culture, and life, in such a way that harmony and respect for nature become viable.