Abstract

Considering the trajectories of the models of Vivir Bien in Bolivia and sustainable development in Chile, this article examines the socio-political and socio-cultural characteristics of the development processes in Latin America today. In both cases, the approaches defining development are considered the result of national and global political and economic processes, where the traditional premises of development exclusively determined by economic growth have been adjusted. Both proposals suggest the eventual renewal of the orientations and material conditions of development. However, both proposals are still conditioned by extractivism, raising new forms of conflicts and resistances by local communities and social movements nowadays. This text central question is: how do these models, which initially set out to respond to criticisms of development without identity, neither social nor environmental safeguards, face their own crisis nowadays? What are the forms of resistance against living well and sustainable development in Latin America that respond critically to the deepening of extractive activities in Latin American countries during the last decade? After a general contextualization of both cases, the main contents of the proposal of Living Well in Bolivia and the political uses of sustainable development in Chile are presented. Subsequently, reference is made to the territorial dynamics built in each country, from critical local angels that appeal to its rectification and to deeper transformations of the political, economic bases that regulate development. Although this does not strictly constitute a comparative work, it will allow for knowing important differences, and coincidences in the economic and cultural configurations of development in two Latin American countries.