Building Sustainable Communities in the Global South: The Communitarian Revolutionary Subject

Abstract

This essay addresses some of the underlying causes of the numerous conflicts between indigenous and peasant communities and the nation-states within which they reside. It gives voice to the actors involved in forging alternatives to the development proposals of the hegemonic forces in the world-system. They are participating in social movements guided by different cosmologies, products of their multiple ethnic origins, and the profound philosophic and epistemological debates of the past half-century. Their organizations are discovering new ways of integrating their belief systems, their cultures and their relationships to their environments to create contrasting models of society, models that directly address the demands for social justice and sustainability while protecting the whole panoply of traits that define a people. They are consciously involved in implementing collective solutions to consolidate their autonomy, improve well-being, and assure responsible environmental management.