Call for papers: "Buen Vivir: Theory and Practice of Social and Environmental Sustainability"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Policy and Decision Making.

Over the last few years, buen vivir has brought a wave of freshness to the debate on alternative development, a debate that has been renewed in connection with the international crisis of recent years, since orthodox models of development have shown all their weaknesses. Buen vivir has also been expressed at political and institutional level in countries such as Ecuador and Bolivia, thus contributing to the opening of a positive perspective in social categories that had long been marginalised.

 

Based on heated critique of the neo-liberal global order and mainstream development paradigms, buen vivir seems to avoid two opposing weaknesses often associated with ‘alternative’ approaches: one is that it is weak in proposing a viable ‘positive’ practical perspective and the other, that it is based on ‘praxis without a theory’. The three elements (critique, a comprehensive strategic approach to social change and praxis) are inextricably linked in buen vivir, with the distinctive feature of being translated into real political and institutional arrangements.

 

Buen vivir, as known, studied and practised, is therefore a blend of rather diverse elements such as a concept of ethno development arising from the experience of indigenous peoples, the idea of a plurinational state, a relational understanding of the ways different societies enter into a process of transformation, the idea of multiculturalism and a concept of local development. Most of these elements have already emerged in the history of thought as well as of practice, with a wide range of outcomes that represent in some ways the context to which buen vivir has to be related, once it is separated from the specific situation in which it originates.

 

This special issue focuses on environmental policy and decision making and the associated consequences for exploring alternatives to go beyond the crises.

 

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Environmental policy
• Development policy
• Future scenarios and global consequences
• Environmental impact case studies analysis
• Biodiversity and climate change
• Participatory decision making in environmental pollution/sustainable development
• Sustainability management
• Social and environmental sustainability

 

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 30 April, 2014

Feedback from reviewers: 30 May, 2014

Revised manuscripts: 10 July, 2014

Acceptance notification: 11 August, 2014