Multiple trajectories of modernity

This paper aims at reviewing the content of Buen vivir as an emergent discourse within the “gravitational field” of sustainable development: its genesis, its foundations and its singularity. First, we consider the criticisms to the development discourse and to its direct descendant: sustainable development. Next, we review the position of Latin America in the global discursive field of sustainable development and the situation of Buen vivir facing the debates therein. Drawing on the traditional repository of the aboriginal cultures of the continent, this new discourse has been theorized in the academic sphere and translated into normative principles that have permeated the political sphere, which is especially visible in the cases of Ecuador and Bolivia. In this article we refer to “Buen vivir” as the contemporary reelaboration of the quechua concept Sumak Kawsay, and other similar concepts from other indigenous nations. It includes both the idea of interdependence between society and its natural environment, as well as a conception of the universal as plural. Lastly, beyond its implications for environmental debate, Buen vivir also involves an imperative for the redefinition of relations between the citizenry, the state and the market.

Last four/five decades have seen revolutionary development in the field of electronics, computer and automation. Naturally avionics and C.N.S facilities also have adopted these technologies to the best of their advantage. The present paper shows how these technologies have modernized the aircraft cockpit and how C.N.S facilities have been modernised to give smooth and safe flying. The description is based on author's observation of the development in civil aviation for the last more than four decades and future trends in this field.

In this paper, we present a reading of the contemporary discourse building on the concept of Buen vivir as a cultural model emerging from Latin America in response to the key problems of collective life. We draw on Guy Bajoit's theory of social change and on Peter Wagner's interpretive approach to characterize modernity and its implications for the construction of cultural models; among others, that of cultural pluralism. In this plurality, dominant and dominated cultural models coexist, with their specific ideologies and utopias. The Buen vivir discourse was built as a modern (autonomous and rational) cultural model with its own utopia. From its indigenous origins, this new discourse was theorized in the academic sphere and traduced into normative principles that have permeated also the political sphere, which is especially visible in the cases of Ecuador and Bolivia. It is part of a wider critical stream opposing the dominant cultural model, and formulates specific answers to the central problems of collective life, in particular the problem of sustainability. In our analysis, we insert the Buen vivir discourse into the global (inter-cultural) dialogical dynamics aimed at solving the great problems of collective life; and we consider its contributions and limits to such debates, as well as its relations with other modern cultural models.

This paper sets out to review the content of Buen vivir (‘good living’) as an emergent discourse, reflecting on its genesis and contributions to the sustainability debate, as well as on incipient attempts at its institutionalization. First, we briefly revisit criticisms to the development discourse and then engage in deeper exploration of the status of its direct descendant: sustainable development (SD). Next, we consider the Latin-American position in the discursive field of SD and the situation of Buen vivir vis-à-vis SD. Drawing on the traditional repository of the continent's indigenous cultures, this discourse has been theorized in the academic sphere and translated into normative principles that have started to permeate the public, but also the political sphere, especially in Ecuador and Bolivia. In this article we refer to Buen vivir as the contemporary discursive reelaboration of the Quechua concept Sumak Kawsay and similar principles from other indigenous peoples. It includes both the idea of interdependence between society and nature and a conception of the universal as a plurality. Lastly, we outline some inbuilt tensions of the Buen vivir discourse, but also its dialogic potential with several variants of the heterogeneous discursive field around the idea of SD.

The introduction to the edited volume problematises the category of 'region' as exclusively defined in terms of nation and nationalism by the dominant methodologies. The central argument is that region is not pre-discursive a category, but actively participating in shaping experiences of modernity. Thus this paper explores the possibilities of studying Kerala modernity by foregrounding the multiple space-times of the region by reviewing the methodologies of the scholarship on Kerala modernity as well as wider methodological takes on modernity such as multiple/national modernities.

Glass, H.G.L and Franks, P.E (1989) : The implications of migrant labour for the development of a post-modern South Africa.  Paper presented to the XXIXth International Congress of the International Institute of Sociology, Rome, Italy, 12 - 16 June.