Abstract

Buen vivir (good living) discourse emerged at the turn of the century in the context of global political contestation around the prevailing development model at the intersection of multiple actors, discourses, and struggles. A genealogical reconstruction of this discourse disputes the ethnocentric character often attributed to it outside Latin America as an allegedly indigenous discursive product. Instead, buen vivir is a prime example of "glocal" discursive articulation in pursuit of alter- and postdevelopmentalist utopias-a cultural-political experiment that holds valuable lessons for global debates around alternative socio-ecological futures.