Brainstorm Week 9 - Eric Fong

 "Buen vivir (in Spanish), or ‘living well’” (Escobar 138). Escobar adds that this new conceptualization “subordinates economic objectives to ecological criteria, human dignity, and social justice (Ybarra 8). The exploration of buen vivir involves a new way of understanding the community's interaction with oneself. Ybarra explains how previously subjugated indigenous people seeks to utilize buen vivir as a means of healing post-colonialism. The shift towards community also must involve the ecosystem that they live in which relates to Brainstorm 8's focus on Ecuador's convenciena/Chicanxfuturism that relates to their environment and shift towards ecosystems and community. There is also a new development on understanding how 'matter' within one ecosystem/environment is interpreted by indigenous people in "Indigenous Matters" by Dian Million. They explore the relativity of life for indigenous people's as "holistic, lived experience, in specific places, in relation with both human and nonhuman." "matter is understood as interactive rather than static" (107). The interplay between community and individuals is seen at every level. "Goodlife Writing" interplays with the ideas of buen vivir by focusing on community and ecology for the decolonization of communities previously subjugated. The writing focuses on healing post European colonialism.