**8. Traditional knowledge on quality of life:** *Buen Vivir* **as alternative to development**

The traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples and their communities, which have survived the passage of time and modernity, is of great importance in Latin America. Some of this traditional knowledge is closely related to the understanding of quality of life, including the *Küme Mogen* concept of the Mapuche people, *Sumak Kawsay* of the Quechua peoples, *Suma Qamaña* of the Aymara peoples, and

*Quality of Life - Biopsychosocial Perspectives*

given project enough ([1], p. 33).

sustainable regional development. For justice to be applied, neither a declaration of principles nor the mere existence of legal standards is sufficient. Nor is a declaration of respect for human dignity or a certain social empathy for those affected by a

Indeed, many economic interventions are carried out with contempt for social groups, especially when they are poor or have "traditional" ways of life that are not considered "modern," as occurred with the construction of hydroelectric centers in Mapuche territories in the Upper Biobío in the Biobío Region. This is frequently the case with megaprojects that intervene in the ancestral territories of indigenous communities in Latin America. Thus, author Nussbaum rightly states that for justice to be effective it must be accompanied by real webs of feelings that intrinsically entail the mutual understanding of the human quality of the subjects participating in a social process strained by interests and suffused with fair aspirations [1]: "Respect on its own is cold and inert, insufficient to overcome the bad tendencies that lead human beings to tyrannize over one another. Disgust denies fundamental human dignity to groups of people, portraying them as mere animals. Consequently, respect grounded in the idea of human dignity will prove impotent to include all citizens on terms of quality unless it is nourished by imaginative engagement with the lives of others and by an inner grasp of their full and equal humanity." "Love, then, matters for justice – especially when justice is incomplete and an aspiration (as in all real nations), but even in an achieved society of human beings, were such to exist." ([19], p. 459).

**7. Citizen participation, democracy, and quality of life**

ing with a conception and perspective of social inclusion ([1], p. 34).

Citizen participation is the modern democratic mechanism that ultimately grants social legitimacy to any project that intervenes in a territory and affects the quality of life of the community, as generally occurs. Citizen participation must be included in all stages of the planning process. Participation currently has great legitimacy in a society, as it is a method of building cities and societies and develop-

Nonetheless, the liberal conception of citizen participation is quite restrictive, as it refers only to legal-formal characteristics: "The emphasis liberalism puts on the reclaiming of citizen rights is to the detriment of responsibilities, which, except for obeying laws and paying taxes, are scarcely mentioned. This gives the liberal conception of citizenship a marked legal-formal character, which is why it is considered a weak citizenship. The existence of citizen rights is a necessary but insufficient condition for citizenship. The liberal conception represents an impoverished version of citizenship, in which citizens are reduced to passive bearers of rights, whose freedom consists of being able to pursue their individual interests (or conceptions

Similarly, Fierro states: "From a communitarian perspective, citizenship entails both individual rights and social responsibilities, with a better balance between the two important to attain. Only then will an individual achieve full citizenship, as it entails a strong moral commitment" ([20], p. 124). For real citizen participation to exist, it must be considered early and organized throughout the development and

Participation first requires public will, in the sense of wanting and facilitating it, which is not always an assumption during the creation of a project. It also requires substantive legal backing and provisions that make it obligatory and clearly define its course. Participation goes hand in hand with trust-building, which means explaining the true environmental and social implications of the project to the

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public ([1], p. 34).

of a good life)." ([20], p. 123).

decision-making process of a given project.

*Ñamde reko* of the Guaraní [21–24]. All these concepts can be seen as manifestations of the ideas of *Buen Vivir* (which roughly translates as "good living") that have been addressed theoretically by Acosta and Gudynas, although *Buen Vivir* ideas are a current topic for various intellectual groups in Latin America, who gather ancestral ideas to grapple with development by rethinking it as a development focused on quality of life and the environment.

*Buen Vivir* is not a completely settled concept, as it is in a constant process of updating, incorporating ideas from indigenous groups and their traditional knowledge, the citizenry, and Latin American academia. A review of the literature indicates that its basic precepts are sustainable living, justice, democracy, a solidary, community economy, reciprocity, and the combination of different logics of production and work, fostering the appreciation of ancestral practices and knowledge and complementarity rather than competition as the foundation of the economic and production model.

The concept of *Buen Vivir* bursts into Latin American political discourse, public policies, and academic debate more than a decade ago. It has also been incorporated into the constitutions of Bolivia (2009) and Ecuador (2008). It bears mentioning that while the two constitutional systems have similarities, the Ecuadorian constitution presents *Buen Vivir* as a set of rights, while the Bolivian document presents it more as a fundamental ethic to take into consideration. Likewise, various processes and realities went into the creation of the concept; for example, the Bolivian discussion on *Suma Qamaña* was driven by the hard work of indigenous communities and indigenous intellectuals such as Simón Yampara, while in Ecuador the discussion was led mainly by the economist Alberto Acosta.

The concept of *Buen Vivir* appeared in the political sphere in the late 1990s, drawing on the *Buen Vivir* culture of indigenous origins [17, 25, 26]. It has been shaped by both global and local discourses, focusing on the search for post-development alternatives rooted in indigenous and citizen discourses in Latin America.

As we have stated, *Buen Vivir* is centered on a critic of development, putting forth the idea that the social and the ecological overlap and are mutually related, thus taking on equal importance [27–29]. It is therefore considered a biocentric position, in which natural elements have intrinsic value: "They are, therefore, subjects. It is precisely this position that allowed the rights of nature to be recognized in the new constitution of Ecuador" ([28], p. 8)*.* The foregoing undoubtedly has many implications, since, when developing legal proposals, the defense of the rights of nature must be taken into consideration.

Thus, *Buen Vivir* is a pluralistic concept [22, 28], a conceptual platform for understanding the world, and, in the case of indigenous people, a worldview consistent with each specific national and community context. Therefore, it could be said that there are various "Buen Vivires" specific to local situations. As Eduardo Gudynas puts it: "As Buen Vivir is pluralistic, it could be stated that any indigenous position, or any critique of development, is a synonym of Buen Vivir." ([28], p. 9).

In keeping with the idea of the pluralistic nature of *Buen Vivir*, the concept has recently been used extensively in the discourse of Mapuche political organizations who have revived the ancestral idea of *Küme Mogen*, linking it to environmental and territorial problems in the Araucanía region. Through *Küme Mogen*, the Mapuche people offer an alternative to development from a perspective of "sustainability with identity," through which it is sought to implement an alternative guided by principles of balance and human harmony with the environment, thereby displacing western assumptions on the environment viewed in terms of the needs of man. Thus, the concept of *Küme Mogen* guides action by promoting values of respect and the Mapuche moral code *Ad Mapu*, which regulates good relations and reciprocity among all the elements of nature, whether animals, trees, rivers, plants, or rocks.

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*Quality of Life from the South, Local Knowledge, Socio-Ecological Relationships, and Citizen…*

The guiding element through which the practices of *Küme Mogen* is articulated is based on the principle of "duality/transgression," which is present in many American indigenous cultures, and "constitutes a public subsystem of the Mapuche religion, open to the non-Mapuche world, to preserve nature and sustainably use

Good and efficient participation requires a guarantee of transparency, great clarity,

Another important aspect to consider in a project is the possibility of creating added value for regions. Many projects merely extract raw materials without adding value; such projects keep regions poor, turning them into mere suppliers of cheap natural resources. By contrast, development projects that add value contribute to personal development (through the demand for qualified personnel) and that of the region/town through value chain momentum, the creation of knowledge and technology, and the improvement of trade. Along with adding value to what it produces, a project must also consider the identity of the town or region. It is known that some projects degrade or even destroy regional identity. The identity of a region is closely related to its ecological, productive, social, and cultural history. Identity unites a region and strengthens its inhabitants' sense of belongingness to and respect for its ecological and human habitats. And identity has an irreplaceable and immense

value, as it nourishes the social and individual life of the community [1].

Before the appearance of private property and the capitalist mode of production, communities occupied territories with a vision, culture, and practices based on the commons or the common good [1]. "Commons im Pluriversum" (the common in various worlds), in Escobar's words, takes on an ontological character [32]. The ontology of the commons bases its philosophy on a world or various worlds with common senses and belongings that serve as a foundation for and enable the emergence of human life within the framework of a habitable and interdependent natural habitat [1]. Thus: "the emergence of 'the common' as a political rallying cry initially grew out of dispersed social and cultural struggles against the capitalist order and the entrepreneurial state. As the central term use to denote an alternative to neoliberalism, the common became the effective principle for struggles and movements, that, over the past two decades, have resisted the dynamics of capital

and information on the process a project will follow, its objectives, contents, costs, impacts, deadlines, and means of citizen participation, as well as the careful establishment of real possibilities for neighboring communities to influence its course [1, 31]. Social experience indicates that communities affected by interventions in their territories generally react and base their arguments on the defense of their individual and collective interests ([1], p. 36). They defend their heritage of common goods, whether water, an ecosystem, a landscape, clean air, a wetland, traditional crops, forms of coexistence, or local cultures. Thus, for a consultation system to be truly democratic and generate conditions for dialog and possible consensus, transparency regarding interests, common heritage, and the motivations of the actors participating in the project proves essential [1]. Concealing the underlying interests and motivations is detrimental to project acceptance. And the interests are not entirely rational; they also involve experiences and emotional expressions: "… more deeply, the public culture needs to be nourished and sustained by something that lies deep in the human heart and taps its most powerful sentiments, including both passion and humor. Without these, the public culture remains wafer-thin and passionless, without the ability to motivate people to make any sacrifice of their personal self-interest for the sake of the common good." ([19], pp. 61, 62).

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88953*

the resources of their territory" ([30], p. 94).

**9. Ontology of the commons and quality of life**

*Quality of Life from the South, Local Knowledge, Socio-Ecological Relationships, and Citizen… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88953*

The guiding element through which the practices of *Küme Mogen* is articulated is based on the principle of "duality/transgression," which is present in many American indigenous cultures, and "constitutes a public subsystem of the Mapuche religion, open to the non-Mapuche world, to preserve nature and sustainably use the resources of their territory" ([30], p. 94).
