Page 221 - El État de los derechos humanos en el desarrollo sostenible

EL ETAT DE LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS EN EL DESARROLLO SOSTENIBLE

Changing paradigms: between the dichotomy of the theory of Sustainable
Development and the Well-living approach

Yenny Vega Cárdenas, Ph.D*

Abstract
The well-living approach finds its origins in the native concept of Sumak kawsay, which

proposes to reconstruct our understanding of life, introducing some ethical and egalitarian

considerations between human beings, different cultures and the variety of species living on
earth. This new paradigm invites us to rethink growth targets proposed by the "development"

advocates and the pillars on which it relays its green "sustainable development", that does

not seem to offer satisfactory results to environmental and social problems of the planet.
Invoking the necessity to rethink different manners to live in harmony with nature, the well-

living approach or Sumak Kawsay, proposes a different manner to understand the world.

Developed by authors mainly from Latin America, it was institutionalized in two
Constitutions of the Andean countries: Ecuador in 2008 and Bolivia in 2009. This article

analyzes the existing dichotomy between sustainable development and the well-living

approach, which seem to be both contradictory and complementary. Furthermore, we shall
study the complexity of dealing with the coexistence of those concepts in the territories that

have integrated both of them in order to estimate the real contribution of the emergence of a

new paradigm.

Introduction

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