Education for a good life: tracing how Sumak Kawsay and sufficiency economy became ideals for living well

En:

Revista Asia América Latina, Año 4 Vol. 4 no. 6

Editor:

Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales. Instituto de Estudios de América Latina y el Caribe. Grupo de Estudios de Asia y América Latina

Fecha:

2019-04

Tipo de documento: 

artículo

Idioma: 

eng

Temas:

Travel of progress - Citizenship - Governance of difference - Stories of virtue - Good life - Viaje del progreso - Ciudadanía - Gobernanza de la diferencia - Historias de virtud - Buena vida

Descripción: 

Both Sumak Kawsay (SK) in Ecuador and Sufficiency Economy (SE) in Thailand are stories of virtue, identity and progress that bring about an ideal citizen and lifestyle claimed to be good for all, but which are in fact problematic and dangerous for many. These notions arose in political and educational discourses as a promise to “rescue” “indigenous” values; to make possible ways of good-living better suited for each of these countries than “Western” notions of well-being. It is problematic that in trying to make the idea of progress “indigenous” these proposals (re)inscribe particular historically transmitted ideas of who an ideal citizen is, and a lifestyle which makes deviant “kinds” of people who have to be “cured” through education. This paper will argue that SK and SE in education are ways of organizing the behavior of people through stories of virtue. It will also argue that these stories shape and are shaped by their intersection with the traveling and translation of ideas of progress. The paper will look into particular historical events to analyze what categories and notions of progress make SK and SE possible.

Filiación Institucional: 

Fil: Coello, Gioconda. University of Wisconsin-Madison.