Gonzalo SALAZAR, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile , Chile
Wladimir RIQUELME, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile , Chile
Tomás IBARRA, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile , Chile
The global crisis we are facing requires radical changes in the way the global society has been organized. Sustainability praxis – the one in which epistemological, ethical, practical and political dimensions of sustainability converge – needs to be designed and experienced from different socio-cultural dynamics - i.e. mainly from the everyday habitus of communities in differential spaces and scales. Fostering intercultural and diverse transitions paths towards sustainability is critical for the current global sustainability agenda. This is especially important in the Latin American global south, where the praxis of sustainability must be integrated with decolonization processes in pursuit of diversity and indigenous justice.
In this paper we propose that in the face of the global crisis we are confronting, new practices for sustainability led by indigenous groups are emerging. We suggest that these practices – characterized by intercultural, mobile and in-placed dynamics – may trigger novel socio-ecological knowledges and processes of indigenous recognition in intercultural contexts. Moreover, we suggest that they are of great significance for (1) activating communitarian sustainable transitions; and (2) planning of local and scale-linking sustainability agendas for the future. Ultimately, although we suggest that these emerging practices can contribute to sustainability transitions as alternative models of social order and greater community autonomy, they are still conditioned and undermined by homogenizing epistemological frameworks and by hegemonic socio-political and neoliberal forces that need to be overcome.
The study is based on a 3-years ethnography project in southern Chile (2018-2020) that examined several intercultural socio-spatial practices lead by Mapuche groups, and on a new transdisciplinary research project (2022-2025) on indigenous and intercultural transitions towards sustainability in the same area.
Mots clés : Sustainability Transition |Indigenous practices |Diversity |Decolonization |Chile
A105274GS