Discursive synergies for a 'Great Transformation' towards sustainability : pragmatic contributions to a necessary dialogue between human development, degrowth, and buen vivir
Beling, Adrián E. (FLACSO (Organization). Programa Argentina)
Vanhulst, Julien (Universidad Católica del Maule)
Demaria, Federico (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Rabi, Violeta (Fundación Espacio Público)
Carballo, Ana Estefanía (University of Melbourne. School of Social and Political Sciences)
Pelenc, Jérôme (Université Libre de Bruxelles. Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique)

Date:	2018
Abstract:	There is a growing awareness that a whole-societal " Great Transformation " of Polanyian scale is needed to bring global developmental trajectories in line with ecological imperatives. The mainstream Sustainable Development discourse, however, insists in upholding the myth of compatibility of current growth-based trajectories with biophysical planetary boundaries. This article explores potentially fertile complementarities among trendy discourses challenging conventional notions of (un)sustainable development - Human Development, Degrowth, and Buen Vivir - and outlines pathways for their realization. Human Development presents relative transfor-mative strengths in political terms, while Degrowth holds keys to unlocking unsustainable material-structural entrenchments of contemporary socioeconomic arrangements, and Buen Vivir offers a space of cultural alterity and critique of the Euro-Atlantic cultural constellation. The weaknesses or blind spots ('Achilles heels') of each discourse can be compensated through the strengths of the other ones, creating a dialogical virtuous circle that would open pathways towards a global new " Great Transformation ". As one of the main existing platforms for pluralist and strong-sustainability discussions, Ecological Economics is in a privileged position to deliberately foster such strategic discursive dialogue. A pathway towards such dialogue is illuminated through a model identifying and articulating key discursive docking points.
Grants:	European Commission 695446 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CSO2014-54513-R
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Published in:	Ecological economics, Vol. 144 (Feb. 2018) , p. 304-313, ISSN 0921-8009

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.08.025

Post-print 37 p, 739.4 KB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles