A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

presupposes a harmonious relationship between humanity and Mother
Earth, thanks to putting into practice the ancestral calendar and its cosmovision,
particularly as concerns Father Sun and Mother Moon. For
Manuel Castro, it is a question of specific cultural values and also of ancestral
science and technology (2010, 4-7). In this sense, both Josef Esterman
(1993) and Eduardo Gudynas (2009) talk of a ‘cosmic ethic’.
Non-indigenous intellectuals have also made statements on the subject.
Alberto Acosta, a leftwing economist and former president of the Constituent
Assembly, writes that the adoption of sumak kawsay into political
thinking in Ecuador means that it is “a demonstration that it is
possible to open the door to the construction of a democratic society,
receiving both the proposals of the indigenous peoples and nationalities,
as well as broad sectors of the rest of the population. At the same time
it contributes considerably to the debates for change that are developing
in the world” (2009, 7). Acosta had previously stated that the concept
of sumak kawsay “is concerned with a series of social, economic and
environmental rights and guarantees” (ibid.). As for Magdalena León,
from a feminist viewpoint she introduces the concept of the “economy
of human concern” (2010, 150) as an expression of sumak kawsay because
“it recovers the idea of life as the basis and central key of the
economy” (2009, 63). For Pablo Dávalos, the idea “reintegrates nature
into history as it is inherent to social existence” (quoted by E. Gudynas,
2011, 6). Jorge García has no hesitation in writing that sumak kawsay
represents the “art of living” (2004). It is, however, Eduardo Gudynas
who has published the most on the subject and we shall often be citing
him on various occasions here. His position is very clear: the notion of
‘buen vivir’ is a criticism of the current development model and a call to
build a quality of life that includes both people and nature (E.Gudynas.
2011, 2). René Ramírez, National Secretary for Planning, one of the authors
of the National Development Plan, writes that the idea implies the
satisfaction of needs, quality of life, loving and being loved, peace and
harmony with nature, protection of culture and of biodiversity (René
Ramírez, 2010, 139). In summing up his position, Ramírez refers to “bioequality
and republican bio-socialism”, stressing the combination be-
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