“Buen Vivir seeks to ensure people’s quality of life, in a broad sense that goes beyond material well-being (to include spiritual wellbeing) and the individual (to include a sense of community), as well as beyond anthropocentrism (to include Nature). Under Buen Vivir, the values inherent in Nature are recognised, and therefore also the duty to maintain its integrity at both the local and the global level. This perspective aims to transcend the dualism that separates society from Nature, as well as breaking with the linear idea of history that assumes our countries must imitate the lifestyles and culture of the industrialised nations.”
Eduardo Gudynas
As a system of thought and action, post-extractivism offers an emerging, radical approach to the problems caused by mining, and the extractivist ideology more broadly, both of which undermine our relationship with Nature and each other. It encourages us to think from an Earth-centred perspective about our role and our place on a living planet, and draws upon indigenous thinking.
Chiefs Megaron and Raoni of the Kayapo People.
Post-extractivism is founded in philosophies of Buen Vivir (Good Living) and intersects with alternative development and economic theories/practices from de-growth to the commons. It critiques developmental and economic models that, through a myopic focus on GDP growth, support an oppressively extractive, non-reciprocal relationship between human societies and Mother Earth, as well as the plunder of ‘peripheral’ societies by wealthy ‘core’ societies.
Post-extractivism proposes radical alternatives to these current models of development thinking and explores fields of action for a just transition towards new, reciprocal ways of being present to one another and our living planet.
This growing and regularly updated collection of writings draws together the thoughts of scholars, activists, historians and social commentators on post-extractivism in different contexts. To our knowledge it is the only ‘library’ of free-to-access information on post-extractivism.
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
R Buckminster Fuller
We live in a time of multiple, complex crises. There are no easy answers. Working to uphold the health and diversity of our living planet is always rewarding, but we think you’ll agree it can sometimes feel like swimming against the stream. And yet like salmon we leap, and more often than you might expect, we make it. We invite you to make the next leap with us by making a donation of any size. Thank you for your solidarity.
