A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

and poverty – which applies to many of the Afro-descendants of Ecuador,
who constitute 7.2 per cent of the population.
We agree with Sen that the enormous scope for the agency of women
is one of the most neglected questions in development studies. In the
case of the Afro-Ecuadorian people there are a number of examples.
Increasingly there are natural catastrophes such as drought, earthquakes
and flood. But it is the women who are most affected by the climate crisis,
as we have to continue maintaining the household, attending to the
family, as well as getting food, searching for water, producing and reproducing
life – in conditions that are tougher and tougher.
In the mangrove ecological system the lack of work has meant that men
are the first to emigrate. And this is when the women have to take on
the tasks of providing the needs of the family, anchored to its roots.
The women charged with collecting shells and reforesting for organizations
like FUNDECON are the first to suffer the consequences of this deforestation.
Up to 56 per cent of the species have already disappeared,
as in Muisne. Rosa Guillen, coordinator of the Women Transforming the
Economy Network of Peru says: “the construction of a new model of
social development that fights capitalism must recognize women as producers,
their reproductive work and their leadership, without discrimination,
in conducting society.” (2006)
We feel that we have covered discursively the four fundamental themes
concerning the problems of the crisis of capitalism. In spite of some criticism
we think that they are key themes for reflection although they do
not include all the dimensions of the problematic and we suggest the
possibility of other themes being included which, for other cultures,
could be more important. We would call for the building of a new mode
of political, socio-cultural production based on ethno-development. This
would emphasize that this should start with a profound, complex and
conscientious investigation, modification and production of individual
and collective public policies that take into account the cosmovision of
the time-space community and of the various values, arranged in order
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