Beyond growth and development: buen vivir as an alternative to current paradigms

The aim of this paper is to investigate to what extent buen vivir\ud(‘good life’), Latin America’s new concept for collective well being, can be\udconsidered a way forward beyond current paradigms related to economic\udgrowth, development, ideology and state building, with its strengths and\udpotential weaknesses or just a new version of political discourse. In order to\udanswer this question, we will briefly review the literature that can help to trace\udthe buen vivir origins in the cosmovisions of Latino American indigenous\udpeoples, and to connect it to reflections made in different areas of social,\udeconomic and political sciences, trying to identify the areas in which\uddivergences arise using established approaches and frameworks. In the\udconclusions we will also try to look at the added value brought by the buen\udvivir towards a renewed understanding of political, social, and economic\udobjectives of the associated life