Amazonia. Violencias, resistencias, propuestas

• Main Author: Alberto Acosta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra 2015-09-01
• Series: Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais
• Subjects: Amazon; ecology; good living; natural resources exploration; post-capitalism; resistance
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/rccs/6004

The Amazon, that huge South American territory which accommodates two main dichotomies, abundance and violence, is permanently struggling between life and death. For a long time the immense Amazon rainforest was seen as a reserve of natural resources where the capital would go shopping as it pleased. The very complexity of this territory requires new perspectives and alternative proposals to prevent its potential devastation. This territory has a life of its own and generates new knowledge; the very same knowledge the Western model is trying to silence, which also explains why it has become a territory of resistance. It is a matter of urgency to think about global alternatives and, above all, places for the different problems before it is too late. Comprehensive answers are needed to move towards good living or sumak kawsay, and to enable us to consider a post-extractive and post-capitalist society. Decommodifying the Amazon is the pressing challenge.