The Dictionary of Radical Alternatives - User contributions [en]

About us

2026-05-16T16:47:37Z

Carlos:

The Dictionary of Radical Alternatives is a Project Hosted by the [https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/ Global Tapestry of Alternatives]. The contents of the dictionary have been curated by the [https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/assembly:groups:wg:dictionary:index Dictionary Working Group] of the GTA which consists of:

Franco Augusto,
Matthew Burke,
Ashish Kothari,
Vera Kozak,
Lizah Makombore,
Vasna Ramasar,
Carlos Tornel,
Matías Vaccarezza.

The project was developed with the support of organization [https://oneproject.org/ One Project]

== List of Contributors ==

Academy of Democratic Modernity

Alberto Acosta

Alim Bandara

Arturo Escobar

Ashish Kothari

Breno Bringel

Carlos Tornel

Catherine “Katkat” Dalon

Deepika Nandan

Eleanor Finley

Gustavo Esteva

Hsar Doe Doh Moo

Jose Monfred C. Sy

Juan Pablo Soler

Karishma Kelsey

Lebohang Liepollo Pheko

Lizah Makombore

Mina Lorena Navarro

Miriam Lang

Mogau Kekana

Nicole Burton

Omar Valencia Pérez

Sabrina Fernandes

Şervîn Nudem

Silvia Marcos

Ted Rau

Tero Mustonen

Tukahia Ngataki

Verónica Barreda

Wangũi wa Kamonji

Yasnaya Aguilar Gil

Concepts:Ogonize/Nnimmo Bassey

2026-04-29T13:32:53Z

Carlos:

= Ogonize by Nnimmo Bassey =

== Introduction ==
Ogonize is a concept and call to action inspired by the historic resistance of the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta against environmental destruction and political marginalization. It represents a strategy of collective organizing, rooted in community solidarity, ecological consciousness, and nonviolent resistance. To “Ogonize” is to mobilise communities to defend their environment, assert their rights, and challenge systems of exploitation.
The concept draws from the legacy of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and the broader struggle against oil extraction that has devastated the region. Ogonize extends beyond Ogoniland, offering a framework for communities worldwide facing similar injustices. It emphasizes grassroots organizing, documentation of environmental harm, legal advocacy, and global solidarity.
In today’s context of escalating ecological crises, Ogonize serves as both a historical lesson and a contemporary strategy. It underscores the power of people-led movements in confronting entrenched systems and advancing environmental justice. By connecting local struggles to global networks, Ogonize transforms isolated resistance into collective action.

== Definition and Origins ==
To “Ogonize” is to organize from below in defense of land, water, life, and self-determination. The concept comes from the historic struggle of the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta against oil extraction, environmental devastation, and political marginalization. It is inspired especially by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP, which was founded in 1990 as an Ogoni-based organization committed to nonviolent campaigning, democratic awareness, environmental protection, cultural rights, social and economic development, and self-determination.

Ogonize is simultaniosuly a concept and a call to action. It means mobilizing communities to defend their environment, assert their rights, document ecological harm, pursue legal advocacy, build solidarity, and challenge systems of exploitation. It is therefore not merely a reference to Ogoniland. It is a political verb. To Ogonize is to transform the Ogoni experience into a broader method of resistance for communities facing extractivism, sacrifice zones, and corporate-state violence.

The roots of the concept lie in the long history of oil extraction in the Niger Delta. The Ogoni people experienced oil spills, gas flaring, land contamination, water pollution, military repression, and the loss of farming and fishing livelihoods. Their struggle became internationally visible through MOSOP and through the leadership of Ken Saro-Wiwa, who helped make the Ogoni struggle a global symbol of environmental justice. The execution of Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders in 1995 by Nigeria’s military regime turned Ogoniland into a global reference point for the violence that accompanies fossil fuel extraction.

== Philosophies and Practices ==

The philosophy of Ogonize rests on four linked principles: self-determination, environmental justice, nonviolent resistance, and global solidarity. Self-determination means that communities must have the right to decide the future of their territories. Environmental justice means that the harms of extraction must not be normalized as the cost of development. Nonviolent resistance means that collective power can be built through organization, public testimony, protest, cultural mobilization, legal action, and international advocacy. Global solidarity means that local struggles must be connected across borders because extractive corporations, financial institutions, and fossil fuel infrastructures also operate transnationally.

In practice, to Ogonize involves several concrete actions. It means building community assemblies and local organizations capable of articulating demands. It means documenting spills, poisoned water, destroyed farms, health impacts, and abandoned infrastructure. It means challenging official narratives that blame communities for pollution while minimizing corporate responsibility. It means using courts, international human rights mechanisms, media campaigns, and alliances with environmental justice networks. It also means refusing the false promise that extraction can resume safely before cleanup, remediation, compensation, decommissioning, and ecological restoration have occurred.

The evidence supporting the Ogoni struggle is extensive. UNEP’s 2011 assessment found that pollution from more than 50 years of oil operations in Ogoniland had penetrated further and deeper than many had assumed. UNEP examined more than 200 locations, surveyed 122 kilometers of pipeline rights of way, reviewed more than 5,000 medical records, and engaged more than 23,000 people in local community meetings. It warned that restoring Ogoniland could become one of the world’s most wide-ranging and long-term oil cleanup exercises.

The practice of Ogonizing also includes resisting greenwashing. The call to “Yasunize and Ogonize the World” frames these struggles as part of a broader movement to keep fossil fuels in the ground. He explicitly connects Ogoni resistance to the courage of communities that halted crude oil extraction in Ogoni territory in 1993 and continue to reject attempts to reopen oil wells.

== Challenges and Opportunities ==

The challenges facing Ogonize are severe. The first is state repression. The Ogoni struggle has been marked by intimidation, criminalization, violence, and the memory of the Ogoni Nine. Communities defending land and water often confront security forces, corporate influence, and political elites who frame resistance as anti-development or disorder.

The second challenge is corporate misinformation and control over evidence. Amnesty International has documented how oil spill investigations in the Niger Delta have historically lacked transparency, with communities sometimes denied copies of investigation forms and with oil companies exerting disproportionate influence over the process. Amnesty also reported cases where Shell’s explanations of spill causes were contested by community evidence and independent assessments. This makes documentation, community science, independent monitoring, and legal literacy central to any Ogonize strategy.

The third challenge is delayed remediation. Nearly a decade after UNEP called for cleanup, Amnesty International and allied organizations reported in 2020 that work had begun on only 11 percent of polluted sites identified by UNEP, with no site entirely cleaned up at that time. They also noted continuing failures in emergency measures related to drinking water, health protection, and transparency.

A fourth challenge is the renewed pressure to resume oil extraction. HOMEF’s 2026 report on endless oil spills argues that Ogoniland continues to suffer from abandoned oil infrastructure and recent spills in B-Dere, Kpean, and Eteo-Eleme. It insists that oil operations must not resume until meaningful cleanup is achieved, aging infrastructure is decommissioned, affected communities are compensated, and ecosystems and livelihoods are restored.

Yet Ogonize also has major opportunities. Digital tools allow communities to document spills and amplify local testimony. Transnational environmental justice networks can connect Ogoniland with Yasuní, Standing Rock, the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Gulf Coast, and other frontline territories. Legal actions against corporations are increasingly visible across jurisdictions. Climate justice debates also make it harder to separate local pollution from global fossil capitalism.

== Case-study example: Ogoniland and the demand to keep oil in the ground ==

The central case study for Ogonize is Ogoniland itself. Beginning in the 1990s, MOSOP transformed local grievances into a globally recognized environmental justice struggle. It articulated the right of the Ogoni people to land, ecology, cultural survival, and political autonomy. Its strategy combined nonviolent mobilization, community education, documentation, international advocacy, and moral pressure against the Nigerian state and oil corporations.
The power of this case lies in the fact that Ogoni resistance helped halt oil extraction in the territory in 1993, even though pollution and abandoned infrastructure remained. That halt is politically significant because it shows that communities can interrupt extractive inevitability. Extraction is often presented as destiny: oil must be drilled, pipelines must be built, sacrifice zones must be accepted, and communities must adapt. Ogoniland shows another possibility. Communities can say no. They can refuse the conversion of their lands and waters into zones of death.
Today, the Ogoni case remains unfinished. Cleanup has been slow, justice has been partial, and renewed attempts to resume extraction continue. This is why Ogonize is not only a memory of past resistance. It is a present strategy. To Ogonize the world is to learn from Ogoniland that environmental justice requires organized people power, territorial self-determination, reparative cleanup, fossil fuel phaseout, and the defense of life against sacrifice.

[[File:Ogonize and Yasunize.png|thumb|Ogonize campaign]]
[[File:Ogonize and Yasunize campign 2.png|thumb]]

=== Refernces ===

* UNEP (2011). Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland
* MOSOP publications
* Amnesty International reports on Niger Delta
* Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission (2024) report

=== Further exploration ===

* Endless Oil Spills. Risks of resuming Oil extraction in Ogoni land: https://homef.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Endless-Oil-spills-Risk-of-resuming-Oil-extraction-in-Ogoniland-2.pdf
* Ecoinstigator No.48: https://homef.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Eco-Instigator-48-.pdf
* Ogoni, Yasuni at heart of new HOMEF environmental campaign: https://ashenewsdaily.com/environment-climate-change/ogoni-yasuni-at-heart-of-new-homef-environmental-campaign/
* Yasunize and Ogonize the World: https://nnimmobassey.net/2025/04/22/yasunize-and-ogonize-the-world

'''For futher enquiry kindly reach Nnimmo Bassey at nnimmo@homef.org'''

'''Precious Ucheawaji at precious@homef.org'''

Concepts:Ogonize/Nnimmo Bassey

2026-04-29T13:32:15Z

Carlos:

File:Ogonize and Yasunize campign 2.png

2026-04-29T13:27:42Z

Carlos:

Ogonize and Yasunize campign 2

File:Ogonize and Yasunize.png

2026-04-29T13:27:03Z

Carlos:

Ogonize and Yasunize campaign 1

Concepts:Ogonize/Nnimmo Bassey

2026-04-29T13:25:33Z

Carlos: Carlos moved page Contribution:20260429131450 to Concepts:Ogonize/Nnimmo Bassey

{{Contribution
|contribution:type=New Definition
|contribution:concept=Concepts:Ogonize
|contribution:name=Nnimmo Bassey
}}
= Ogonize by Nnimmo Bassey =

== Introduction ==
Ogonize is a concept and call to action inspired by the historic resistance of the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta against environmental destruction and political marginalization. It represents a strategy of collective organizing, rooted in community solidarity, ecological consciousness, and nonviolent resistance. To “Ogonize” is to mobilise communities to defend their environment, assert their rights, and challenge systems of exploitation.
The concept draws from the legacy of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and the broader struggle against oil extraction that has devastated the region. Ogonize extends beyond Ogoniland, offering a framework for communities worldwide facing similar injustices. It emphasizes grassroots organizing, documentation of environmental harm, legal advocacy, and global solidarity.
In today’s context of escalating ecological crises, Ogonize serves as both a historical lesson and a contemporary strategy. It underscores the power of people-led movements in confronting entrenched systems and advancing environmental justice. By connecting local struggles to global networks, Ogonize transforms isolated resistance into collective action.

== Definition and Origins ==
To “Ogonize” is to organize from below in defense of land, water, life, and self-determination. The concept comes from the historic struggle of the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta against oil extraction, environmental devastation, and political marginalization. It is inspired especially by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP, which was founded in 1990 as an Ogoni-based organization committed to nonviolent campaigning, democratic awareness, environmental protection, cultural rights, social and economic development, and self-determination.

Ogonize is simultaniosuly a concept and a call to action. It means mobilizing communities to defend their environment, assert their rights, document ecological harm, pursue legal advocacy, build solidarity, and challenge systems of exploitation. It is therefore not merely a reference to Ogoniland. It is a political verb. To Ogonize is to transform the Ogoni experience into a broader method of resistance for communities facing extractivism, sacrifice zones, and corporate-state violence.

The roots of the concept lie in the long history of oil extraction in the Niger Delta. The Ogoni people experienced oil spills, gas flaring, land contamination, water pollution, military repression, and the loss of farming and fishing livelihoods. Their struggle became internationally visible through MOSOP and through the leadership of Ken Saro-Wiwa, who helped make the Ogoni struggle a global symbol of environmental justice. The execution of Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders in 1995 by Nigeria’s military regime turned Ogoniland into a global reference point for the violence that accompanies fossil fuel extraction.

== Philosophies and Practices ==

The philosophy of Ogonize rests on four linked principles: self-determination, environmental justice, nonviolent resistance, and global solidarity. Self-determination means that communities must have the right to decide the future of their territories. Environmental justice means that the harms of extraction must not be normalized as the cost of development. Nonviolent resistance means that collective power can be built through organization, public testimony, protest, cultural mobilization, legal action, and international advocacy. Global solidarity means that local struggles must be connected across borders because extractive corporations, financial institutions, and fossil fuel infrastructures also operate transnationally.

In practice, to Ogonize involves several concrete actions. It means building community assemblies and local organizations capable of articulating demands. It means documenting spills, poisoned water, destroyed farms, health impacts, and abandoned infrastructure. It means challenging official narratives that blame communities for pollution while minimizing corporate responsibility. It means using courts, international human rights mechanisms, media campaigns, and alliances with environmental justice networks. It also means refusing the false promise that extraction can resume safely before cleanup, remediation, compensation, decommissioning, and ecological restoration have occurred.

The evidence supporting the Ogoni struggle is extensive. UNEP’s 2011 assessment found that pollution from more than 50 years of oil operations in Ogoniland had penetrated further and deeper than many had assumed. UNEP examined more than 200 locations, surveyed 122 kilometers of pipeline rights of way, reviewed more than 5,000 medical records, and engaged more than 23,000 people in local community meetings. It warned that restoring Ogoniland could become one of the world’s most wide-ranging and long-term oil cleanup exercises.

The practice of Ogonizing also includes resisting greenwashing. The call to “Yasunize and Ogonize the World” frames these struggles as part of a broader movement to keep fossil fuels in the ground. He explicitly connects Ogoni resistance to the courage of communities that halted crude oil extraction in Ogoni territory in 1993 and continue to reject attempts to reopen oil wells.

== Challenges and Opportunities ==

The challenges facing Ogonize are severe. The first is state repression. The Ogoni struggle has been marked by intimidation, criminalization, violence, and the memory of the Ogoni Nine. Communities defending land and water often confront security forces, corporate influence, and political elites who frame resistance as anti-development or disorder.

The second challenge is corporate misinformation and control over evidence. Amnesty International has documented how oil spill investigations in the Niger Delta have historically lacked transparency, with communities sometimes denied copies of investigation forms and with oil companies exerting disproportionate influence over the process. Amnesty also reported cases where Shell’s explanations of spill causes were contested by community evidence and independent assessments. This makes documentation, community science, independent monitoring, and legal literacy central to any Ogonize strategy.

The third challenge is delayed remediation. Nearly a decade after UNEP called for cleanup, Amnesty International and allied organizations reported in 2020 that work had begun on only 11 percent of polluted sites identified by UNEP, with no site entirely cleaned up at that time. They also noted continuing failures in emergency measures related to drinking water, health protection, and transparency.

A fourth challenge is the renewed pressure to resume oil extraction. HOMEF’s 2026 report on endless oil spills argues that Ogoniland continues to suffer from abandoned oil infrastructure and recent spills in B-Dere, Kpean, and Eteo-Eleme. It insists that oil operations must not resume until meaningful cleanup is achieved, aging infrastructure is decommissioned, affected communities are compensated, and ecosystems and livelihoods are restored.

Yet Ogonize also has major opportunities. Digital tools allow communities to document spills and amplify local testimony. Transnational environmental justice networks can connect Ogoniland with Yasuní, Standing Rock, the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Gulf Coast, and other frontline territories. Legal actions against corporations are increasingly visible across jurisdictions. Climate justice debates also make it harder to separate local pollution from global fossil capitalism.

== Case-study example: Ogoniland and the demand to keep oil in the ground ==

The central case study for Ogonize is Ogoniland itself. Beginning in the 1990s, MOSOP transformed local grievances into a globally recognized environmental justice struggle. It articulated the right of the Ogoni people to land, ecology, cultural survival, and political autonomy. Its strategy combined nonviolent mobilization, community education, documentation, international advocacy, and moral pressure against the Nigerian state and oil corporations.
The power of this case lies in the fact that Ogoni resistance helped halt oil extraction in the territory in 1993, even though pollution and abandoned infrastructure remained. That halt is politically significant because it shows that communities can interrupt extractive inevitability. Extraction is often presented as destiny: oil must be drilled, pipelines must be built, sacrifice zones must be accepted, and communities must adapt. Ogoniland shows another possibility. Communities can say no. They can refuse the conversion of their lands and waters into zones of death.
Today, the Ogoni case remains unfinished. Cleanup has been slow, justice has been partial, and renewed attempts to resume extraction continue. This is why Ogonize is not only a memory of past resistance. It is a present strategy. To Ogonize the world is to learn from Ogoniland that environmental justice requires organized people power, territorial self-determination, reparative cleanup, fossil fuel phaseout, and the defense of life against sacrifice.

Contribution:20260429131450

2026-04-29T13:25:33Z

Carlos: Carlos moved page Contribution:20260429131450 to Concepts:Ogonize/Nnimmo Bassey

#REDIRECT [[Concepts:Ogonize/Nnimmo Bassey]]

Concepts:Ogonize

2026-04-29T13:22:41Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:summary=Ogonize is a concept and call to action inspired by the historic resistance of the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta against environmental destruction and political marginalization. It represents a strategy of collective organizing, rooted in community solidarity, ecological consciousness, and nonviolent resistance. To “Ogonize” is to mobilise communities to defend their environment, assert their rights, and challenge systems of exploitation.
The concept draws from the legacy of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and the broader struggle against oil extraction that has devastated the region. Ogonize extends beyond Ogoniland, offering a framework for communities worldwide facing similar injustices. It emphasizes grassroots organizing, documentation of environmental harm, legal advocacy, and global solidarity.
In today’s context of escalating ecological crises, Ogonize serves as both a historical lesson and a contemporary strategy. It underscores the power of people-led movements in confronting entrenched systems and advancing environmental justice. By connecting local struggles to global networks, Ogonize transforms isolated resistance into collective action.
|concepts:type=commonterms, praxes
|concepts:relations=Energías Comunitarias, Land Back, Swaraj, Radical Ecological Democracy
|concepts:categories=Decolonization, Futures, Re-Existence, Self Governance, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:country=NG
|concepts:region=Africa
|concepts:geolocation=4.50645, 6.73369
}}

Concepts:Ogonize

2026-04-29T13:14:06Z

Carlos: Created page with "{{Concepts |concepts:summary=Ogonize is a concept and call to action inspired by the historic resistance of the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta against environmental destructi..."

Concepts:Eti uwen/Nnimmo Bassey

2026-04-29T13:02:51Z

Carlos:

= Eti uwen, by Nnimmo Bassey =

== '''Introduction''' ==

Eti uwem is an Ibibio concept from Nigeria that can be translated as “good life” or “good living.” Yet its meaning exceeds a simple idea of individual well-being. It names a way of living well with others, with the land, with water, with the more-than-human world, and with the generations that came before and will come after. In Nnimmo Bassey’s formulation, Eti uwem involves harmony with nature and all peoples, and incorporates dignity, respect, rectitude, integrity, solidarity, contentment, social justice, and communal ownership and control of local resources. It also refuses speculation, exploitation, expropriation, ecological destruction, and the placement of monetary value on life and nature.

The concept therefore provides a direct critique of capitalist development, including its contemporary “green” forms. It does not ask how nature can be better priced, traded, offset, or inserted into markets. Rather, it asks what kind of life becomes possible when communities defend the conditions of life from commodification. In this sense, Eti uwem is close to other concepts of relational well-being, such as sumak kawsay among Kichwa peoples, buen vivir in Latin American debates, and Ubuntu in African philosophical traditions. The shared thread is not cultural sameness, but a critique of the idea that the good life can be reduced to growth, consumption, accumulation, or monetary wealth.
Its contemporary significance is especially strong in the Niger Delta, where communities have experienced decades of oil extraction, toxic pollution, dispossession, and the erosion of livelihoods. In this context, Eti uwem is not a nostalgic return to a romanticized past. It is a living political and ethical proposal. It emerges from struggles for environmental justice and from everyday practices that maintain life despite extractive violence. The uploaded concept note rightly describes it as both reflective and practical: it is a philosophy, but also a set of practices such as agroecology, communal stewardship, sacred ecosystem protection, and intergenerational responsibility.

== '''Philosophies and Practices''' ==

The philosophy of Eti uwem begins from relationality. Life is not understood as a collection of separate individuals competing for scarce resources, but as a web of interdependence. Rivers, forests, soil, seeds, animals, ancestors, spirits, and human communities are not passive objects. They are part of the living fabric that makes existence possible. This challenges the modern extractive gaze that sees land as property, rivers as infrastructure, forests as carbon sinks, and communities as labor reserves or obstacles to development.

A central practice of Eti uwem is sufficiency. Sufficiency is not poverty. It is not deprivation. It is the collective capacity to ask what is enough and to organize life around limits, reciprocity, and care. In this sense, Eti uwem resonates with Vandana Shiva’s critique of capitalist development in Making Peace with the Earth, where ecological destruction is tied to the reduction of living systems to resources for accumulation. It also resonates with Arturo Escobar’s Designs for the Pluriverse, especially the idea that worlds are designed through everyday practices, and that alternatives are not merely policy models but different ways of inhabiting the Earth.

Eti uwem also overlaps with the idea of “resource democracy.” What is called a “resource” first belongs to Nature and then to the communities of species and peoples who live in and care for the territory where forests, rivers, grazing lands, soils, trees, crops, water, and wildlife exist. Resource democracy is therefore not simply about national ownership or state control. It is about stewardship, community rule-making, and the defense of life according to traditional and ecological knowledge.

In practical terms, Eti uwem can be seen in communal labor, agroecological farming, seed keeping, food sovereignty, protection of sacred groves, collective decision-making over land and water, and the refusal of extractive projects that destroy the ecological basis of life. It also appears in cultural practices that teach restraint, gratitude, and respect for the non-human world. These practices are not marginal. They are forms of ecological intelligence that challenge the dominant assumption that modern industrial systems are the only rational way to organize life.

== '''Challenges and Opportunities''' ==

The main challenge facing Eti uwem is the dominance of extractive political economies. In many territories, communities are not free to decide how to live with their lands and waters because state policy and corporate power prioritize oil, gas, mining, industrial agriculture, infrastructure corridors, and carbon markets. The green economy often becomes a euphemism for green capitalism, a system in which nature is assigned monetary value so that markets can continue to profit from ecological destruction.

A second challenge is cultural erosion. Indigenous languages, ecological knowledges, ritual practices, and community institutions are weakened by schooling systems, religious pressures, urbanization, migration, media, and the promise of modern consumption. When these practices are lost, communities also lose ways of recognizing limits, maintaining commons, and transmitting responsibility across generations.

A third challenge is policy. Most governments still define development through GDP growth, investment, infrastructure expansion, and resource extraction. Even when they use the language of sustainability, they often reproduce the same logic of accumulation. This creates a profound contradiction: the practices that sustain life are treated as backward, while the systems that destroy life are treated as modern.

Yet Eti uwem also opens important opportunities. First, it provides a language for connecting African ecological philosophies with global debates on degrowth, postdevelopment, buen vivir, rights of nature, food sovereignty, and environmental justice. Second, it gives younger generations a way to reclaim Indigenous ecological knowledge without treating it as folklore. Third, it helps reframe the climate and biodiversity crises not only as technical problems, but as crises of values, power, and ways of living.

== '''Case-study example: Resource democracy and agroecological stewardship in the Niger Delta''' ==

A useful case-study example for Eti uwem is the practice of resource democracy and community-based ecological stewardship in the Niger Delta. In a region marked by oil extraction, polluted waters, damaged farmlands, and broken livelihoods, Eti uwem offers a counter-principle: land and water are not sacrifice zones. They are living territories. They cannot be reduced to barrels of oil, carbon credits, or compensation payments.

Community agroecology illustrates this well. Agroecological practices regenerate soil, protect seeds, reduce dependence on corporate inputs, and rebuild local food systems. They also create spaces for intergenerational learning, where elders transmit knowledge of crops, seasons, medicinal plants, sacred places, and communal obligations. Such practices embody Eti uwem because they combine ecological harmony, sufficiency, and collective well-being.

Eti uwem entails a lived practice of repairing relations. It is the good life understood not as accumulation, but as the capacity to live with dignity, restraint, solidarity, and responsibility within the web of life.

[[File:Eti uwen 1.png|frame|center|eti uwen 1]]

=== '''References''' ===

* Shiva, V. (2013). Making Peace with the Earth
* Escobar, A. (2018). Designs for the Pluriverse

'''Links'''

* https://nnimmobassey.net/about

* Between Eti Uwem and Green Capitalism (Green Democracy): https://homef.org/2013/06/25/between-eti-uwem-and-green-capitalism-green-democracy/

* Re-source Democracy: https://homef.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/resource-democracy.pdf

* The Eti uwen Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylVwC7pR_GQ

Concepts:Eti uwen/Nnimmo Bassey

2026-04-29T12:59:42Z

Carlos:

= Eti uwen, by Nnimmo Bassey =

== '''Introduction''' ==

Eti uwem is an Ibibio concept from Nigeria that can be translated as “good life” or “good living.” Yet its meaning exceeds a simple idea of individual well-being. It names a way of living well with others, with the land, with water, with the more-than-human world, and with the generations that came before and will come after. In Nnimmo Bassey’s formulation, Eti uwem involves harmony with nature and all peoples, and incorporates dignity, respect, rectitude, integrity, solidarity, contentment, social justice, and communal ownership and control of local resources. It also refuses speculation, exploitation, expropriation, ecological destruction, and the placement of monetary value on life and nature.

The concept therefore provides a direct critique of capitalist development, including its contemporary “green” forms. It does not ask how nature can be better priced, traded, offset, or inserted into markets. Rather, it asks what kind of life becomes possible when communities defend the conditions of life from commodification. In this sense, Eti uwem is close to other concepts of relational well-being, such as sumak kawsay among Kichwa peoples, buen vivir in Latin American debates, and Ubuntu in African philosophical traditions. The shared thread is not cultural sameness, but a critique of the idea that the good life can be reduced to growth, consumption, accumulation, or monetary wealth.
Its contemporary significance is especially strong in the Niger Delta, where communities have experienced decades of oil extraction, toxic pollution, dispossession, and the erosion of livelihoods. In this context, Eti uwem is not a nostalgic return to a romanticized past. It is a living political and ethical proposal. It emerges from struggles for environmental justice and from everyday practices that maintain life despite extractive violence. The uploaded concept note rightly describes it as both reflective and practical: it is a philosophy, but also a set of practices such as agroecology, communal stewardship, sacred ecosystem protection, and intergenerational responsibility.

== '''Philosophies and Practices''' ==

The philosophy of Eti uwem begins from relationality. Life is not understood as a collection of separate individuals competing for scarce resources, but as a web of interdependence. Rivers, forests, soil, seeds, animals, ancestors, spirits, and human communities are not passive objects. They are part of the living fabric that makes existence possible. This challenges the modern extractive gaze that sees land as property, rivers as infrastructure, forests as carbon sinks, and communities as labor reserves or obstacles to development.

A central practice of Eti uwem is sufficiency. Sufficiency is not poverty. It is not deprivation. It is the collective capacity to ask what is enough and to organize life around limits, reciprocity, and care. In this sense, Eti uwem resonates with Vandana Shiva’s critique of capitalist development in Making Peace with the Earth, where ecological destruction is tied to the reduction of living systems to resources for accumulation. It also resonates with Arturo Escobar’s Designs for the Pluriverse, especially the idea that worlds are designed through everyday practices, and that alternatives are not merely policy models but different ways of inhabiting the Earth.

Eti uwem also overlaps with Bassey’s notion of “resource democracy.” In the HOMEF publication Re-Source Democracy, Bassey argues that what is called a “resource” first belongs to Nature and then to the communities of species and peoples who live in and care for the territory where forests, rivers, grazing lands, soils, trees, crops, water, and wildlife exist. Resource democracy is therefore not simply about national ownership or state control. It is about stewardship, community rule-making, and the defense of life according to traditional and ecological knowledge.

In practical terms, Eti uwem can be seen in communal labor, agroecological farming, seed keeping, food sovereignty, protection of sacred groves, collective decision-making over land and water, and the refusal of extractive projects that destroy the ecological basis of life. It also appears in cultural practices that teach restraint, gratitude, and respect for the non-human world. These practices are not marginal. They are forms of ecological intelligence that challenge the dominant assumption that modern industrial systems are the only rational way to organize life.

== '''Challenges and Opportunities''' ==

The main challenge facing Eti uwem is the dominance of extractive political economies. In many territories, communities are not free to decide how to live with their lands and waters because state policy and corporate power prioritize oil, gas, mining, industrial agriculture, infrastructure corridors, and carbon markets. This is why Bassey’s critique of “green capitalism” is important. He warns that the green economy often becomes a euphemism for green capitalism, a system in which nature is assigned monetary value so that markets can continue to profit from ecological destruction.

A second challenge is cultural erosion. Indigenous languages, ecological knowledges, ritual practices, and community institutions are weakened by schooling systems, religious pressures, urbanization, migration, media, and the promise of modern consumption. When these practices are lost, communities also lose ways of recognizing limits, maintaining commons, and transmitting responsibility across generations.

A third challenge is policy. Most governments still define development through GDP growth, investment, infrastructure expansion, and resource extraction. Even when they use the language of sustainability, they often reproduce the same logic of accumulation. This creates a profound contradiction: the practices that sustain life are treated as backward, while the systems that destroy life are treated as modern.

Yet Eti uwem also opens important opportunities. First, it provides a language for connecting African ecological philosophies with global debates on degrowth, postdevelopment, buen vivir, rights of nature, food sovereignty, and environmental justice. Second, it gives younger generations a way to reclaim Indigenous ecological knowledge without treating it as folklore. Third, it helps reframe the climate and biodiversity crises not only as technical problems, but as crises of values, power, and ways of living.

== '''Case-study example: Resource democracy and agroecological stewardship in the Niger Delta''' ==

A useful case-study example for Eti uwem is the practice of resource democracy and community-based ecological stewardship in the Niger Delta. In a region marked by oil extraction, polluted waters, damaged farmlands, and broken livelihoods, Eti uwem offers a counter-principle: land and water are not sacrifice zones. They are living territories. They cannot be reduced to barrels of oil, carbon credits, or compensation payments.

Community agroecology illustrates this well. Agroecological practices regenerate soil, protect seeds, reduce dependence on corporate inputs, and rebuild local food systems. They also create spaces for intergenerational learning, where elders transmit knowledge of crops, seasons, medicinal plants, sacred places, and communal obligations. Such practices embody Eti uwem because they combine ecological harmony, sufficiency, and collective well-being.

Eti uwem entails a lived practice of repairing relations. It is the good life understood not as accumulation, but as the capacity to live with dignity, restraint, solidarity, and responsibility within the web of life.

[[File:Eti uwen 1.png|frame|center|eti uwen 1]]

=== '''References''' ===

* Shiva, V. (2013). Making Peace with the Earth
* Escobar, A. (2018). Designs for the Pluriverse

'''Links'''

* https://nnimmobassey.net/about

* Between Eti Uwem and Green Capitalism (Green Democracy): https://homef.org/2013/06/25/between-eti-uwem-and-green-capitalism-green-democracy/

* Re-source Democracy: https://homef.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/resource-democracy.pdf

* The Eti uwen Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylVwC7pR_GQ

Concepts:Eti uwen/Nnimmo Bassey

2026-04-29T12:59:03Z

Carlos:

= Eti uwen, by Nnimmo Bassey =

== '''Introduction''' ==

Eti uwem is an Ibibio concept from Nigeria that can be translated as “good life” or “good living.” Yet its meaning exceeds a simple idea of individual well-being. It names a way of living well with others, with the land, with water, with the more-than-human world, and with the generations that came before and will come after. In Nnimmo Bassey’s formulation, Eti uwem involves harmony with nature and all peoples, and incorporates dignity, respect, rectitude, integrity, solidarity, contentment, social justice, and communal ownership and control of local resources. It also refuses speculation, exploitation, expropriation, ecological destruction, and the placement of monetary value on life and nature.

The concept therefore provides a direct critique of capitalist development, including its contemporary “green” forms. It does not ask how nature can be better priced, traded, offset, or inserted into markets. Rather, it asks what kind of life becomes possible when communities defend the conditions of life from commodification. In this sense, Eti uwem is close to other concepts of relational well-being, such as sumak kawsay among Kichwa peoples, buen vivir in Latin American debates, and Ubuntu in African philosophical traditions. The shared thread is not cultural sameness, but a critique of the idea that the good life can be reduced to growth, consumption, accumulation, or monetary wealth.
Its contemporary significance is especially strong in the Niger Delta, where communities have experienced decades of oil extraction, toxic pollution, dispossession, and the erosion of livelihoods. In this context, Eti uwem is not a nostalgic return to a romanticized past. It is a living political and ethical proposal. It emerges from struggles for environmental justice and from everyday practices that maintain life despite extractive violence. The uploaded concept note rightly describes it as both reflective and practical: it is a philosophy, but also a set of practices such as agroecology, communal stewardship, sacred ecosystem protection, and intergenerational responsibility.

== '''Philosophies and Practices''' ==

The philosophy of Eti uwem begins from relationality. Life is not understood as a collection of separate individuals competing for scarce resources, but as a web of interdependence. Rivers, forests, soil, seeds, animals, ancestors, spirits, and human communities are not passive objects. They are part of the living fabric that makes existence possible. This challenges the modern extractive gaze that sees land as property, rivers as infrastructure, forests as carbon sinks, and communities as labor reserves or obstacles to development.

A central practice of Eti uwem is sufficiency. Sufficiency is not poverty. It is not deprivation. It is the collective capacity to ask what is enough and to organize life around limits, reciprocity, and care. In this sense, Eti uwem resonates with Vandana Shiva’s critique of capitalist development in Making Peace with the Earth, where ecological destruction is tied to the reduction of living systems to resources for accumulation. It also resonates with Arturo Escobar’s Designs for the Pluriverse, especially the idea that worlds are designed through everyday practices, and that alternatives are not merely policy models but different ways of inhabiting the Earth.

Eti uwem also overlaps with Bassey’s notion of “resource democracy.” In the HOMEF publication Re-Source Democracy, Bassey argues that what is called a “resource” first belongs to Nature and then to the communities of species and peoples who live in and care for the territory where forests, rivers, grazing lands, soils, trees, crops, water, and wildlife exist. Resource democracy is therefore not simply about national ownership or state control. It is about stewardship, community rule-making, and the defense of life according to traditional and ecological knowledge.

In practical terms, Eti uwem can be seen in communal labor, agroecological farming, seed keeping, food sovereignty, protection of sacred groves, collective decision-making over land and water, and the refusal of extractive projects that destroy the ecological basis of life. It also appears in cultural practices that teach restraint, gratitude, and respect for the non-human world. These practices are not marginal. They are forms of ecological intelligence that challenge the dominant assumption that modern industrial systems are the only rational way to organize life.

== '''Challenges and Opportunities''' ==

The main challenge facing Eti uwem is the dominance of extractive political economies. In many territories, communities are not free to decide how to live with their lands and waters because state policy and corporate power prioritize oil, gas, mining, industrial agriculture, infrastructure corridors, and carbon markets. This is why Bassey’s critique of “green capitalism” is important. He warns that the green economy often becomes a euphemism for green capitalism, a system in which nature is assigned monetary value so that markets can continue to profit from ecological destruction.

A second challenge is cultural erosion. Indigenous languages, ecological knowledges, ritual practices, and community institutions are weakened by schooling systems, religious pressures, urbanization, migration, media, and the promise of modern consumption. When these practices are lost, communities also lose ways of recognizing limits, maintaining commons, and transmitting responsibility across generations.

A third challenge is policy. Most governments still define development through GDP growth, investment, infrastructure expansion, and resource extraction. Even when they use the language of sustainability, they often reproduce the same logic of accumulation. This creates a profound contradiction: the practices that sustain life are treated as backward, while the systems that destroy life are treated as modern.

Yet Eti uwem also opens important opportunities. First, it provides a language for connecting African ecological philosophies with global debates on degrowth, postdevelopment, buen vivir, rights of nature, food sovereignty, and environmental justice. Second, it gives younger generations a way to reclaim Indigenous ecological knowledge without treating it as folklore. Third, it helps reframe the climate and biodiversity crises not only as technical problems, but as crises of values, power, and ways of living.

== '''Case-study example: Resource democracy and agroecological stewardship in the Niger Delta''' ==

A useful case-study example for Eti uwem is the practice of resource democracy and community-based ecological stewardship in the Niger Delta. In a region marked by oil extraction, polluted waters, damaged farmlands, and broken livelihoods, Eti uwem offers a counter-principle: land and water are not sacrifice zones. They are living territories. They cannot be reduced to barrels of oil, carbon credits, or compensation payments.

Community agroecology illustrates this well. Agroecological practices regenerate soil, protect seeds, reduce dependence on corporate inputs, and rebuild local food systems. They also create spaces for intergenerational learning, where elders transmit knowledge of crops, seasons, medicinal plants, sacred places, and communal obligations. Such practices embody Eti uwem because they combine ecological harmony, sufficiency, and collective well-being.

Eti uwem entails a lived practice of repairing relations. It is the good life understood not as accumulation, but as the capacity to live with dignity, restraint, solidarity, and responsibility within the web of life.

[[File:Eti uwen 1.png|frame|center|eti uwen 1]]

=== '''References''' ===

* Shiva, V. (2013). Making Peace with the Earth
* Escobar, A. (2018). Designs for the Pluriverse

'''Links'''

* https://nnimmobassey.net/about

* Between Eti Uwem and Green Capitalism (Green Democracy):
https://homef.org/2013/06/25/between-eti-uwem-and-green-capitalism-green-democracy/

* Re-source Democracy: https://homef.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/resource-democracy.pdf

* The Eti uwen Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylVwC7pR_GQ

Concepts:Eti uwen/Nnimmo Bassey

2026-04-29T12:55:55Z

Carlos:

'''Introduction'''

Eti uwem is an Ibibio concept from Nigeria that can be translated as “good life” or “good living.” Yet its meaning exceeds a simple idea of individual well-being. It names a way of living well with others, with the land, with water, with the more-than-human world, and with the generations that came before and will come after. In Nnimmo Bassey’s formulation, Eti uwem involves harmony with nature and all peoples, and incorporates dignity, respect, rectitude, integrity, solidarity, contentment, social justice, and communal ownership and control of local resources. It also refuses speculation, exploitation, expropriation, ecological destruction, and the placement of monetary value on life and nature.

The concept therefore provides a direct critique of capitalist development, including its contemporary “green” forms. It does not ask how nature can be better priced, traded, offset, or inserted into markets. Rather, it asks what kind of life becomes possible when communities defend the conditions of life from commodification. In this sense, Eti uwem is close to other concepts of relational well-being, such as sumak kawsay among Kichwa peoples, buen vivir in Latin American debates, and Ubuntu in African philosophical traditions. The shared thread is not cultural sameness, but a critique of the idea that the good life can be reduced to growth, consumption, accumulation, or monetary wealth.
Its contemporary significance is especially strong in the Niger Delta, where communities have experienced decades of oil extraction, toxic pollution, dispossession, and the erosion of livelihoods. In this context, Eti uwem is not a nostalgic return to a romanticized past. It is a living political and ethical proposal. It emerges from struggles for environmental justice and from everyday practices that maintain life despite extractive violence. The uploaded concept note rightly describes it as both reflective and practical: it is a philosophy, but also a set of practices such as agroecology, communal stewardship, sacred ecosystem protection, and intergenerational responsibility.

'''Philosophies and Practices'''

The philosophy of Eti uwem begins from relationality. Life is not understood as a collection of separate individuals competing for scarce resources, but as a web of interdependence. Rivers, forests, soil, seeds, animals, ancestors, spirits, and human communities are not passive objects. They are part of the living fabric that makes existence possible. This challenges the modern extractive gaze that sees land as property, rivers as infrastructure, forests as carbon sinks, and communities as labor reserves or obstacles to development.

A central practice of Eti uwem is sufficiency. Sufficiency is not poverty. It is not deprivation. It is the collective capacity to ask what is enough and to organize life around limits, reciprocity, and care. In this sense, Eti uwem resonates with Vandana Shiva’s critique of capitalist development in Making Peace with the Earth, where ecological destruction is tied to the reduction of living systems to resources for accumulation. It also resonates with Arturo Escobar’s Designs for the Pluriverse, especially the idea that worlds are designed through everyday practices, and that alternatives are not merely policy models but different ways of inhabiting the Earth.

Eti uwem also overlaps with Bassey’s notion of “resource democracy.” In the HOMEF publication Re-Source Democracy, Bassey argues that what is called a “resource” first belongs to Nature and then to the communities of species and peoples who live in and care for the territory where forests, rivers, grazing lands, soils, trees, crops, water, and wildlife exist. Resource democracy is therefore not simply about national ownership or state control. It is about stewardship, community rule-making, and the defense of life according to traditional and ecological knowledge.

In practical terms, Eti uwem can be seen in communal labor, agroecological farming, seed keeping, food sovereignty, protection of sacred groves, collective decision-making over land and water, and the refusal of extractive projects that destroy the ecological basis of life. It also appears in cultural practices that teach restraint, gratitude, and respect for the non-human world. These practices are not marginal. They are forms of ecological intelligence that challenge the dominant assumption that modern industrial systems are the only rational way to organize life.

'''Challenges and Opportunities'''

The main challenge facing Eti uwem is the dominance of extractive political economies. In many territories, communities are not free to decide how to live with their lands and waters because state policy and corporate power prioritize oil, gas, mining, industrial agriculture, infrastructure corridors, and carbon markets. This is why Bassey’s critique of “green capitalism” is important. He warns that the green economy often becomes a euphemism for green capitalism, a system in which nature is assigned monetary value so that markets can continue to profit from ecological destruction.

A second challenge is cultural erosion. Indigenous languages, ecological knowledges, ritual practices, and community institutions are weakened by schooling systems, religious pressures, urbanization, migration, media, and the promise of modern consumption. When these practices are lost, communities also lose ways of recognizing limits, maintaining commons, and transmitting responsibility across generations.

A third challenge is policy. Most governments still define development through GDP growth, investment, infrastructure expansion, and resource extraction. Even when they use the language of sustainability, they often reproduce the same logic of accumulation. This creates a profound contradiction: the practices that sustain life are treated as backward, while the systems that destroy life are treated as modern.

Yet Eti uwem also opens important opportunities. First, it provides a language for connecting African ecological philosophies with global debates on degrowth, postdevelopment, buen vivir, rights of nature, food sovereignty, and environmental justice. Second, it gives younger generations a way to reclaim Indigenous ecological knowledge without treating it as folklore. Third, it helps reframe the climate and biodiversity crises not only as technical problems, but as crises of values, power, and ways of living.

'''Case-study example: Resource democracy and agroecological stewardship in the Niger Delta'''

A useful case-study example for Eti uwem is the practice of resource democracy and community-based ecological stewardship in the Niger Delta. In a region marked by oil extraction, polluted waters, damaged farmlands, and broken livelihoods, Eti uwem offers a counter-principle: land and water are not sacrifice zones. They are living territories. They cannot be reduced to barrels of oil, carbon credits, or compensation payments.

Community agroecology illustrates this well. Agroecological practices regenerate soil, protect seeds, reduce dependence on corporate inputs, and rebuild local food systems. They also create spaces for intergenerational learning, where elders transmit knowledge of crops, seasons, medicinal plants, sacred places, and communal obligations. Such practices embody Eti uwem because they combine ecological harmony, sufficiency, and collective well-being.

Eti uwem entails a lived practice of repairing relations. It is the good life understood not as accumulation, but as the capacity to live with dignity, restraint, solidarity, and responsibility within the web of life.

[[File:Eti uwen 1.png|frame|center|eti uwen 1]]

'''References'''

* Shiva, V. (2013). Making Peace with the Earth
* Escobar, A. (2018). Designs for the Pluriverse

'''Links'''

* https://nnimmobassey.net/about

* Between Eti Uwem and Green Capitalism (Green Democracy):
https://homef.org/2013/06/25/between-eti-uwem-and-green-capitalism-green-democracy/

* '''Re-source Democracy''': https://homef.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/resource-democracy.pdf

* The Eti uwen Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylVwC7pR_GQ

File:Eti uwen 1.png

2026-04-29T12:50:51Z

Carlos:

Photographs of community-led agroecology projects

Concepts:Eti uwen/Nnimmo Bassey

2026-04-29T12:46:22Z

Carlos: Carlos moved page Contribution:20260429124137 to Concepts:Eti uwen/Nnimmo Bassey

{{Contribution
|contribution:type=New Definition
|contribution:concept=Concepts:Eti uwen
|contribution:name=Nnimmo Bassey
}}
Eti uwem is an Ibibio concept from Nigeria that can be translated as “good life” or “good living.” Yet its meaning exceeds a simple idea of individual well-being. It names a way of living well with others, with the land, with water, with the more-than-human world, and with the generations that came before and will come after. In Nnimmo Bassey’s formulation, Eti uwem involves harmony with nature and all peoples, and incorporates dignity, respect, rectitude, integrity, solidarity, contentment, social justice, and communal ownership and control of local resources. It also refuses speculation, exploitation, expropriation, ecological destruction, and the placement of monetary value on life and nature.
The concept therefore provides a direct critique of capitalist development, including its contemporary “green” forms. It does not ask how nature can be better priced, traded, offset, or inserted into markets. Rather, it asks what kind of life becomes possible when communities defend the conditions of life from commodification. In this sense, Eti uwem is close to other concepts of relational well-being, such as sumak kawsay among Kichwa peoples, buen vivir in Latin American debates, and Ubuntu in African philosophical traditions. The shared thread is not cultural sameness, but a critique of the idea that the good life can be reduced to growth, consumption, accumulation, or monetary wealth.
Its contemporary significance is especially strong in the Niger Delta, where communities have experienced decades of oil extraction, toxic pollution, dispossession, and the erosion of livelihoods. In this context, Eti uwem is not a nostalgic return to a romanticized past. It is a living political and ethical proposal. It emerges from struggles for environmental justice and from everyday practices that maintain life despite extractive violence. The uploaded concept note rightly describes it as both reflective and practical: it is a philosophy, but also a set of practices such as agroecology, communal stewardship, sacred ecosystem protection, and intergenerational responsibility.
Philosophies and Practices
The philosophy of Eti uwem begins from relationality. Life is not understood as a collection of separate individuals competing for scarce resources, but as a web of interdependence. Rivers, forests, soil, seeds, animals, ancestors, spirits, and human communities are not passive objects. They are part of the living fabric that makes existence possible. This challenges the modern extractive gaze that sees land as property, rivers as infrastructure, forests as carbon sinks, and communities as labor reserves or obstacles to development.
A central practice of Eti uwem is sufficiency. Sufficiency is not poverty. It is not deprivation. It is the collective capacity to ask what is enough and to organize life around limits, reciprocity, and care. In this sense, Eti uwem resonates with Vandana Shiva’s critique of capitalist development in Making Peace with the Earth, where ecological destruction is tied to the reduction of living systems to resources for accumulation. It also resonates with Arturo Escobar’s Designs for the Pluriverse, especially the idea that worlds are designed through everyday practices, and that alternatives are not merely policy models but different ways of inhabiting the Earth.
Eti uwem also overlaps with Bassey’s notion of “resource democracy.” In the HOMEF publication Re-Source Democracy, Bassey argues that what is called a “resource” first belongs to Nature and then to the communities of species and peoples who live in and care for the territory where forests, rivers, grazing lands, soils, trees, crops, water, and wildlife exist. Resource democracy is therefore not simply about national ownership or state control. It is about stewardship, community rule-making, and the defense of life according to traditional and ecological knowledge.
In practical terms, Eti uwem can be seen in communal labor, agroecological farming, seed keeping, food sovereignty, protection of sacred groves, collective decision-making over land and water, and the refusal of extractive projects that destroy the ecological basis of life. It also appears in cultural practices that teach restraint, gratitude, and respect for the non-human world. These practices are not marginal. They are forms of ecological intelligence that challenge the dominant assumption that modern industrial systems are the only rational way to organize life.
Challenges and Opportunities
The main challenge facing Eti uwem is the dominance of extractive political economies. In many territories, communities are not free to decide how to live with their lands and waters because state policy and corporate power prioritize oil, gas, mining, industrial agriculture, infrastructure corridors, and carbon markets. This is why Bassey’s critique of “green capitalism” is important. He warns that the green economy often becomes a euphemism for green capitalism, a system in which nature is assigned monetary value so that markets can continue to profit from ecological destruction.
A second challenge is cultural erosion. Indigenous languages, ecological knowledges, ritual practices, and community institutions are weakened by schooling systems, religious pressures, urbanization, migration, media, and the promise of modern consumption. When these practices are lost, communities also lose ways of recognizing limits, maintaining commons, and transmitting responsibility across generations.
A third challenge is policy. Most governments still define development through GDP growth, investment, infrastructure expansion, and resource extraction. Even when they use the language of sustainability, they often reproduce the same logic of accumulation. This creates a profound contradiction: the practices that sustain life are treated as backward, while the systems that destroy life are treated as modern.
Yet Eti uwem also opens important opportunities. First, it provides a language for connecting African ecological philosophies with global debates on degrowth, postdevelopment, buen vivir, rights of nature, food sovereignty, and environmental justice. Second, it gives younger generations a way to reclaim Indigenous ecological knowledge without treating it as folklore. Third, it helps reframe the climate and biodiversity crises not only as technical problems, but as crises of values, power, and ways of living.
Case-study example: Resource democracy and agroecological stewardship in the Niger Delta
A useful case-study example for Eti uwem is the practice of resource democracy and community-based ecological stewardship in the Niger Delta. In a region marked by oil extraction, polluted waters, damaged farmlands, and broken livelihoods, Eti uwem offers a counter-principle: land and water are not sacrifice zones. They are living territories. They cannot be reduced to barrels of oil, carbon credits, or compensation payments.
Community agroecology illustrates this well. Agroecological practices regenerate soil, protect seeds, reduce dependence on corporate inputs, and rebuild local food systems. They also create spaces for intergenerational learning, where elders transmit knowledge of crops, seasons, medicinal plants, sacred places, and communal obligations. Such practices embody Eti uwem because they combine ecological harmony, sufficiency, and collective well-being.
The uploaded PDF’s visual materials already point in this direction: photographs of agroecology, children in a community circle, and community-led ecological practices are proposed as visual examples of the concept. These images matter because they show that Eti uwem is not an abstract theory. It is a lived practice of repairing relations. It is the good life understood not as accumulation, but as the capacity to live with dignity, restraint, solidarity, and responsibility within the web of life.

Contribution:20260429124137

2026-04-29T12:46:22Z

Carlos: Carlos moved page Contribution:20260429124137 to Concepts:Eti uwen/Nnimmo Bassey

#REDIRECT [[Concepts:Eti uwen/Nnimmo Bassey]]

Concepts:Eti uwen/Nnimmo Bassey

2026-04-29T12:43:35Z

Carlos: Created page with "{{Contribution |contribution:type=New Definition |contribution:concept=Concepts:Eti uwen |contribution:name=Nnimmo Bassey }} Eti uwem is an Ibibio concept from Nigeria that ca..."

Concepts:Eti uwen

2026-04-29T12:39:19Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:summary=Eti uwem is a concept in Ibibio, one of the several languages in Nigeria, which literally means good life or good living. Within it is the idea of living in harmony with nature and all peoples. It incorporates dignity, respect, rectitude, integrity, solidarity and contentment. Within this concept are the key principles of social justice, power relations and citizens’ and communal ownership and control of local resources. It objects to speculation, exploitation, expropriation and destructive activities and, very importantly, no monetary price can be placed on life and nature. A close concept is sumak Kawsay of the Kichwa people of Latin America, which is sometimes also captured as similar to buen vivir.
Eti uwem is both reflective and practical. It manifests in community practices such as shared resource management, agroecology, respect for sacred ecosystems, and intergenerational responsibility. It also serves as a critique of systems that produce environmental injustice, displacement, and inequality. In a world facing intersecting crises climate change, biodiversity loss, and social fragmentation Eti uwem offers a pathway toward regenerative futures.
This concept invites individuals and communities to imagine and enact alternatives that prioritize life over profit. It is not a fixed destination but an ongoing process of living rightly within the web of life.
|concepts:type=commonterms, alternativeworldviews, praxes
|concepts:relations=Buen Vivir, Relationality,
|concepts:categories=Care, Decolonization, Self Governance, Solidarity, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:country=NG
|concepts:region=Africa
|concepts:geolocation=9.63995, 8.03622
}}

Concepts:Eti uwen

2026-04-29T12:36:01Z

Carlos: Created page with "{{Concepts |concepts:summary=Eti uwem is a concept in Ibibio, one of the several languages in Nigeria, which literally means good life or good living. Within it is the idea of..."

Introduction

2026-03-19T14:37:44Z

Carlos:

== On the Nature of Our Civilizational Crisis ==

We are living through a civilizational crisis. It is not only ecological, political or economic, but also a profound crisis of meaning and imagination. More than three quarters of a century have passed since President Harry S. Truman declared that the world would embrace “development” as its guiding horizon. For seventy-six years, this idea has been cultivated like a global monocrop, promising prosperity through growth, industrialization, and modernization. Yet its roots run deeper—over five centuries of capitalist modernity have entrenched a model of life that privileges accumulation over care, extraction over reciprocity, and uniformity over diversity. The consequences today are clear: ecological devastation, social fragmentation, political authoritarianism, economic inequality at historical peaks, and a pervasive sense of despair and hopelessness.

This is not only a material crisis but also one of narration —a crisis of the words and concepts through which we understand ourselves and our world. As anti-colonial thinkers and movements have long taught, colonization is not only a material problem, it is also present in our heads. Without discounting the violence of settler and internal colonialism, colonization also corrodes our imaginaries, normalizes state and ethnic violence, and convinces us that there is “no alternative.” When languages and vocabularies are colonized, our ability to imagine and embody other possibilities is diminished. It is within this context that the Dictionary of Radical Alternatives takes shape. Building on earlier works such as [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wolfgang-Sachs/publication/321938764_The_Development_Dictionary_A_Guide_to_Knowledge_as_Power-2nd-ed-2010/links/5a3a4136aca2728e6988a1bf/The-Development-Dictionary-A-Guide-to-Knowledge-as-Power-2nd-ed-2010.pdf|The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power], [https://www.are.na/block/7769373|The Post-Development Reader], and [https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/publications:index#pluriversea_post-development_dictionary|Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary] among many others, this dictionary continues and expands a long lineage of embodied projects of resistance and re-existence across the Global South. It highlights the voices and practices of Indigenous, peasant, rural, and marginalized communities that have been silenced under the monologue of development. The aim is not to produce a definitive canon, but to create a living, open-ended resource: a pluriversal space where concepts can meet, resonate, and—as the Zapatistas remind us—mirror one another’s struggles and resistances<ref>See: https://radiozapatista.org/?p=10375&lang=en</ref>.

==What is this Dictionary?==

The idea for a Dictionary of Radical Alternatives emerged in the context of the [https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/index Global Tapestry of Alternatives] first in-person Assembly in [https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/assembly:2023:kenya:index?redirect=1 Kenya], where participants agreed that it would be valuable to create a space in which different worldviews, practices, and common terms could come into dialogue. After nearly three years of conversations, encounters, and collective reflection, and with the support of several [https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/endorsements:index GTA Endorsers], the resulting project seeks to do precisely that: to build a collaborative platform where different ways of being, knowing, and doing can come together, be shared, and open up possibilities for alternatives amid the ongoing and deepening civilizational crisis of the West.

The project seeks not only to expand the collection of definitions of what we call “alternatives” but to cultivate what the late Mexican activist and deprofesionalized intellectual Gustavo Esteva described as a “dialogue of livings.” Rather than privileging the abstract “logos” that often dominates the dialogue of knowledges, this is a dialogue rooted in practices of everyday resistance, conviviality, and care. The entries in this dictionary come from all continents, representing a multiplicity of worldviews, epistemologies, and ontologies. Some recover ancestral practices that have long resisted erasure; others are newly coined to make sense of our unprecedented times. In this way, the dictionary is not simply a reference tool but a political and cultural intervention. It seeks to unearth, gather, and circulate concepts and practices rendered invisible or dismissed as “backward” by the coloniality of development, while challenging the hegemony of capitalist, statist, patriarchal, racist, anthropocentric, and colonialist systems. Together, these contributions affirm that alternatives are not distant utopias but already-existing realities—embodied in movements, communities, and struggles that prefigure other ways of being and relating.

The dictionary also emerges in conversation with contentious debates. One of the most significant concerns is how we understand the so-called “Global South”. Too often reduced to a mere geographical designation, the South must instead be seen as a constellation of peoples, places, and knowledges systematically othered by colonialism, patriarchy and capitalist modernity. This othering produces not only vast regions of dispossession in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, but also zones of oppression and exclusion within the so-called North. Capitalist modernity continually reconfigures geographies of power: sacrifice zones expand across hemispheres, and an intensifying war against subsistence—against the ability of communities to reproduce life outside the circuits of capital—has become central to sustaining value production. Increasingly, capitalism depends on cannibalizing nature and appropriating reproductive labor, as the possibilities for accumulation from living labor alone diminish. Naming and confronting this reality requires us to move beyond inherited categories and to defend, recover and/or forge new conceptual tools for being, doing and knowing in the world.

To address this challenge, the Dictionary of Radical Alternatives is founded on '''five''' guiding principles.

* '''First''', it prioritizes cross-cultural understanding by opening access to place-based concepts presented in their original languages, highlighting both their resonances and their differences.

* '''Second''', it emphasizes collaboration and collective ownership, adopting an open-source spirit that invites contributions from communities, organizations, scholars, and activists around the world.

* '''Third''', it is committed to accessibility, ensuring that materials reach beyond academic or activist circles to those who may be skeptical, curious, or immersed in everyday struggles for survival and dignity.

* '''Fourth''', it rests on the conviction that radical alternatives emerge from below, grounded in lived practices rather than imposed from above.

* '''Fifth''', it encourages the notion that there can be multiple definitions and interpretations of the same term. Through a web-based platform, we aim to foster intercultural knowledge of radical alternatives, inspire culturally rooted actions, and make accessible transformative practices for activists, academics, younger generations, and all those searching for other horizons.

It is through these voices and visions that we can begin to reclaim meaning, rebuild imagination, and weave together a pluriverse of alternatives. The dictionary does not aim to close debate but to open it wider—to help us listen across difference, learn from each other’s struggles, and recognize that other worlds are not only possible but already in the making.

We close this introductory note with the words of Wangũi wa Kamonji, whose poem encapsulates the spirit of this project and its contents:

<poem>
“development is a word and a world,
a word from a certain kind of world
building, dismantling, distressing…
in an ecosystem of other words:
(progress, growth,
sustainable development,
adjustment, reforms,
good governance, democracy…)
a word that makes a certain kind of world
built for certain kinds of people
possible,
a word that makes a certain kind of world
not built for other kinds of people
impossible.

what world?

a world of scarcity,
of not enough
lower – on a ladder
behind – in a queue,
slow – in movement,
least – in value,
failing – in progress,
in whose project?

so you become developing, still,
(didn’t your mother birth you complete?)
but you don’t know, you must be taught,
you must be shown, you need help, you need experts
you need you need you need
you can’t, you are not.

I reject development and its miscontents, discontents, un-contents
I’m getting off that train to nowhere very fast.

what names and namings did other worlds have for their dreams?
what names do other worlds have for their
desires, present past future?
I want to use those names,
to paint those worlds in the foreground,

so

keep your development, I’ll have my wĩyathi
keep your development, I’ll have my sumak kawsay
keep your development, I’ll have my ujamaa
keep your development, I’ll have my swaraj
keep your development, I’ll have my whanau
keep your development, I’ll have my ibuhle
keep your development, I’ll have my lekil kuxlejal
keep your development, I’ll have my dreaming
keep your development, I’ll have my ubuntu
keep your development, I’ll have my vivir sabroso
keep your development, I’ll have my madaraka
keep your development, I’ll have my yir kura
keep your development, I’ll have my raara to buri

yes, keep your development, I’ll have my living
life.”
:- '''“on development” by Wangũi wa Kamonji , 2018'''
</poem>

== References ==
<references/>

Introduction

2026-03-19T14:33:47Z

Carlos:

== On the Nature of Our Civilizational Crisis ==

We are living through a civilizational crisis. It is not only ecological, political or economic, but also a profound crisis of meaning and imagination. More than three quarters of a century have passed since President Harry S. Truman declared that the world would embrace “development” as its guiding horizon. For seventy-six years, this idea has been cultivated like a global monocrop, promising prosperity through growth, industrialization, and modernization. Yet its roots run deeper—over five centuries of capitalist modernity have entrenched a model of life that privileges accumulation over care, extraction over reciprocity, and uniformity over diversity. The consequences today are clear: ecological devastation, social fragmentation, political authoritarianism, economic inequality at historical peaks, and a pervasive sense of despair and hopelessness.

This is not only a material crisis but also one of narration —a crisis of the words and concepts through which we understand ourselves and our world. As anti-colonial thinkers and movements have long taught, colonization is not only a material problem, it is also present in our heads. Without discounting the violence of settler and internal colonialism, colonization also corrodes our imaginaries, normalizes state and ethnic violence, and convinces us that there is “no alternative.” When languages and vocabularies are colonized, our ability to imagine and embody other possibilities is diminished. It is within this context that the Dictionary of Radical Alternatives takes shape. Building on earlier works such as [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wolfgang-Sachs/publication/321938764_The_Development_Dictionary_A_Guide_to_Knowledge_as_Power-2nd-ed-2010/links/5a3a4136aca2728e6988a1bf/The-Development-Dictionary-A-Guide-to-Knowledge-as-Power-2nd-ed-2010.pdf|The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power], [https://www.are.na/block/7769373|The Post-Development Reader], and [https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/publications:index#pluriversea_post-development_dictionary|Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary] among many others, this dictionary continues and expands a long lineage of embodied projects of resistance and re-existence across the Global South. It highlights the voices and practices of Indigenous, peasant, rural, and marginalized communities that have been silenced under the monologue of development. The aim is not to produce a definitive canon, but to create a living, open-ended resource: a pluriversal space where concepts can meet, resonate, and—as the Zapatistas remind us—mirror one another’s struggles and resistances<ref>See: https://radiozapatista.org/?p=10375&lang=en</ref>.

==What is this Dictionary?==

The idea for a Dictionary of Radical Alternatives emerged i the context of the [https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/index Global Tapestry of Alternatives] during the [https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/assembly:2023:kenya:index?redirect=1 first in-person Assembly in Kenya in 2023], where participants agreed that it would be valuable to create a space in which different worldviews, practices, and common terms could come into dialogue. After nearly three years of conversations, encounters, and collective reflection, and with the support of several [https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/endorsements:index GTA Endorsers], the resulting project seeks to do precisely that: to build a collaborative platform where different ways of being, knowing, and doing can come together, be shared, and open up possibilities for alternatives amid the ongoing and deepening civilizational crisis of the West.

The project seeks not only to expand the collection of definitions of what we call “alternatives” but to cultivate what the late Mexican activist and deprofesionalized intellectual Gustavo Esteva described as a “dialogue of livings.” Rather than privileging the abstract “logos” that often dominates the dialogue of knowledges, this is a dialogue rooted in practices of everyday resistance, conviviality, and care. The entries in this dictionary come from all continents, representing a multiplicity of worldviews, epistemologies, and ontologies. Some recover ancestral practices that have long resisted erasure; others are newly coined to make sense of our unprecedented times. In this way, the dictionary is not simply a reference tool but a political and cultural intervention. It seeks to unearth, gather, and circulate concepts and practices rendered invisible or dismissed as “backward” by the coloniality of development, while challenging the hegemony of capitalist, statist, patriarchal, racist, anthropocentric, and colonialist systems. Together, these contributions affirm that alternatives are not distant utopias but already-existing realities—embodied in movements, communities, and struggles that prefigure other ways of being and relating.

The dictionary also emerges in conversation with contentious debates. One of the most significant concerns is how we understand the so-called “Global South”. Too often reduced to a mere geographical designation, the South must instead be seen as a constellation of peoples, places, and knowledges systematically othered by colonialism, patriarchy and capitalist modernity. This othering produces not only vast regions of dispossession in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, but also zones of oppression and exclusion within the so-called North. Capitalist modernity continually reconfigures geographies of power: sacrifice zones expand across hemispheres, and an intensifying war against subsistence—against the ability of communities to reproduce life outside the circuits of capital—has become central to sustaining value production. Increasingly, capitalism depends on cannibalizing nature and appropriating reproductive labor, as the possibilities for accumulation from living labor alone diminish. Naming and confronting this reality requires us to move beyond inherited categories and to defend, recover and/or forge new conceptual tools for being, doing and knowing in the world.

To address this challenge, the Dictionary of Radical Alternatives is founded on '''five''' guiding principles.

* '''First''', it prioritizes cross-cultural understanding by opening access to place-based concepts presented in their original languages, highlighting both their resonances and their differences.

* '''Second''', it emphasizes collaboration and collective ownership, adopting an open-source spirit that invites contributions from communities, organizations, scholars, and activists around the world.

* '''Third''', it is committed to accessibility, ensuring that materials reach beyond academic or activist circles to those who may be skeptical, curious, or immersed in everyday struggles for survival and dignity.

* '''Fourth''', it rests on the conviction that radical alternatives emerge from below, grounded in lived practices rather than imposed from above.

* '''Fifth''', it encourages the notion that there can be multiple definitions and interpretations of the same term. Through a web-based platform, we aim to foster intercultural knowledge of radical alternatives, inspire culturally rooted actions, and make accessible transformative practices for activists, academics, younger generations, and all those searching for other horizons.

It is through these voices and visions that we can begin to reclaim meaning, rebuild imagination, and weave together a pluriverse of alternatives. The dictionary does not aim to close debate but to open it wider—to help us listen across difference, learn from each other’s struggles, and recognize that other worlds are not only possible but already in the making.

We close this introductory note with the words of Wangũi wa Kamonji, whose poem encapsulates the spirit of this project and its contents:

<poem>
“development is a word and a world,
a word from a certain kind of world
building, dismantling, distressing…
in an ecosystem of other words:
(progress, growth,
sustainable development,
adjustment, reforms,
good governance, democracy…)
a word that makes a certain kind of world
built for certain kinds of people
possible,
a word that makes a certain kind of world
not built for other kinds of people
impossible.

what world?

a world of scarcity,
of not enough
lower – on a ladder
behind – in a queue,
slow – in movement,
least – in value,
failing – in progress,
in whose project?

so you become developing, still,
(didn’t your mother birth you complete?)
but you don’t know, you must be taught,
you must be shown, you need help, you need experts
you need you need you need
you can’t, you are not.

I reject development and its miscontents, discontents, un-contents
I’m getting off that train to nowhere very fast.

what names and namings did other worlds have for their dreams?
what names do other worlds have for their
desires, present past future?
I want to use those names,
to paint those worlds in the foreground,

so

keep your development, I’ll have my wĩyathi
keep your development, I’ll have my sumak kawsay
keep your development, I’ll have my ujamaa
keep your development, I’ll have my swaraj
keep your development, I’ll have my whanau
keep your development, I’ll have my ibuhle
keep your development, I’ll have my lekil kuxlejal
keep your development, I’ll have my dreaming
keep your development, I’ll have my ubuntu
keep your development, I’ll have my vivir sabroso
keep your development, I’ll have my madaraka
keep your development, I’ll have my yir kura
keep your development, I’ll have my raara to buri

yes, keep your development, I’ll have my living
life.”
:- '''“on development” by Wangũi wa Kamonji , 2018'''
</poem>

== References ==
<references/>

Concepts:Pakikibaka

2026-03-18T16:59:23Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=The term pakikibaka comes from the Filipino root word "baka", meaning "battle of two minds," combined with the prefix pakiki-, which indicates participation in an action. Therefore, pakikibaka literally translates to "act of participating in battle" and is understood in Filipino psychology as collective resistance, struggle, and uprisings against a common threat or injustice.
|concepts:description=Pakikibaka emphasizes that struggle is not an individualistic act but one that arises from a deep sense of belonging and interconnectedness among Filipinos. It reflects the nation's history of fighting for freedom, dignity, and social justice against colonizers and oppressive regimes. The term encompasses not only physical uprisings and revolutions but also the moral and ideological battles faced by Filipinos.
|concepts:type=commonterms, praxes
|concepts:relations=Relationality, Land Back, Timuay, Ta Madok Maka, Masling,
|concepts:categories=Care, Decentralization, Intergenerational Justice, Self Governance, Solidarity, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:banner=Concept-GenericBanner-01.jpg
|concepts:country=PH
|concepts:region=South East Asia
|concepts:geolocation=8.1282, 124.71836
}}

Concepts:Eco-Territorial Internationalism/Breno Bringel and Sabrina Fernandes

2026-03-16T21:08:12Z

Carlos: Carlos moved page Concepts:Eco-Territorial Internationalism/Breno Bringel and Sabrina Fernandez to Concepts:Eco-Territorial Internationalism/Breno Bringel and Sabrina Fernandes

{{Definition
|definition:concept=Concepts:Eco-Territorial Internationalism
|definition:summary=Eco-territorial internationalism is a concept and a praxis that emerges from the convergence of social, ecological, and territorial struggles across borders. It articulates experiences of resistance and transformation—such as democratic energy, agroecology, food sovereignty, workers’ control, and housing justice— by connecting local roots to a global horizon of systemic change. These are not isolated or merely “local” efforts; they embody a global sense of place and foster transnational solidarities grounded in justice, autonomy, and care. In the face of green colonialism, ecological imperialism, and systemic polycrises, this new internationalism reclaims the radical legacies of anti-imperialism while expanding the political imagination toward just transitions and ecological expressions of sovereignty. It challenges the dominant models of extractivist development and resists greenwashed capitalist transitions that reproduce sacrifice zones, particularly in the Global South. Eco-territorial internationalism does not abandon the state but goes beyond statist approaches, promoting multiscalar articulations and a biocentric politics of scale—from the body, to rivers and ecosystems. It is already in motion, through networks that articulate grassroots movements and resistances confronting the root causes of the crisis and shaping pluriversal futures.
|definition:author=Breno Bringel and Sabrina Fernandes
|definition:quote=Eco-territorial internationalism is a concept we have articulated to describe a praxis that emerges from the convergence of social, ecological, and territorial struggles across borders.
}}
'''Eco-territorial internationalism''' is a concept and a praxis that emerges from the convergence of social, ecological, and territorial struggles across borders. It articulates experiences of resistance and transformation—such as democratic energy, agroecology, food sovereignty, workers’ control, and housing justice— by connecting local roots to a global horizon of systemic change. These are not isolated or merely “local” efforts; they embody a global sense of place and foster transnational solidarities grounded in justice, autonomy, and care. In the face of green colonialism, ecological imperialism, and systemic polycrises, this new internationalism reclaims the radical legacies of anti-imperialism while expanding the political imagination toward just transitions and ecological expressions of sovereignty. It challenges the dominant models of extractivist development and resists greenwashed capitalist transitions that reproduce sacrifice zones, particularly in the Global South. Eco-territorial internationalism does not abandon the state but goes beyond statist approaches, promoting multiscalar articulations and a biocentric politics of scale—from the body, to rivers and ecosystems. It is already in motion, through networks that articulate grassroots movements and resistances confronting the root causes of the crisis and shaping pluriversal futures.

=== Origins and philosophy ===

Eco-territorial internationalism is a concept we have articulated to describe a praxis that emerges from the convergence of social, ecological, and territorial struggles across borders. It is related to a transformative form of internationalism grounded in transnational articulations between communities and territories impacted by socio-environmental conflicts. These experiences are not just about resistance, but also about constructing concrete alternatives for just transitions in fields like energy (community-based, decentralized yet integrated systems), food (agroecology and food sovereignty), production (workers' self-management and territorial democratic planning), consumption (solidarity and proximity economies), care (feminist, communal practices), housing and urban mobility (public spaces and dignified and sustainable living). Although territorially rooted, these experiences are not confined to “the local.” They embody what geographer Doreen Massey described as a global sense of place—a situated yet outward-looking orientation.

The concept builds on decades of internationalist organizing while also responding to the specific challenges of our time: climate emergency, green colonialism, systemic inequality, and the failures of both state-centric and purely localist approaches. Eco-territorial internationalism reclaims the ecological dimension of internationalism, recognizing that no emancipatory project can be sustainable without ensuring the conditions for life. This internationalism is ecological because it recognizes that peoples and species are materially interdependent, so that solidarity and cooperation are not options but necessities.

The eco-territorial turn in contemporary social struggles, particularly visible in the Global South, shows that contemporary conflicts are increasingly territorialized, with communities resisting the destruction of their territories of life while prefiguring new ways of organizing society. The interconnectedness of productive and extractive systems—what is produced, how, for whom, and at what cost—reveals that these are not isolated battles, but part of a shared global struggle.

=== Learning from Past Internationalisms ===

Eco-territorial internationalism does not emerge from scratch. It learns from recent internationalist waves, such as the alter-globalization movement, the World Social Forum, and the squares movements, while acknowledging their limits. It also builds on lessons from anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles – national and transnational – and their calls for cooperation and solidarity.

The alter-globalization movement offered valuable tools for global coordination, denouncing corporate power and promoting systemic critique. However, it struggled to respond to the 2008 financial crisis in a coordinated way, and many of its demands were later co-opted. The cycle of square protests in the 2010s (e.g., Occupy, Indignados, Arab Spring) expanded participation but often lacked sustained transnational infrastructure and the ability to consolidate progressive alternatives.

This legacy is translated to the context of the planetary polycrisis—a systemic entanglement of economic, ecological, political, and social crises that amplify one another. Climate change, far from being just another issue, functions as a multiplier of other systemic risks. Therefore, eco-territorial internationalism expands its horizon by foregrounding Nature—not as a resource, but as a political actor—reconfiguring the spatial logic of internationalism itself, emphasizing both territorial autonomy and international articulation. It seeks to build enduring infrastructure for exchange, mutual learning, and strategic convergence.

To properly converge over the ecological basis of life, eco-territorial internationalism breaks with anthropocentric and hierarchical notions of scale (local–national–global) and instead promotes a biocentric and relational politics of scale. Here, the “territory” becomes a strategic notion because its reference to space is not limited to specific borders or property enclaves, but rather recognizes the interdependencies that sustain life across multiple scales.

Here, the body is understood as the first political territory, embedded in a web of interdependencies with ecosystems and other beings. Territories of struggle are not defined solely by borders or jurisdictions but can also encompass bioregions, watersheds, or ecosystems. Rivers, forests, and biomes become central to resistance and re-existence. This framework enables organizing across spatialities that correspond with ecological realities rather than those imposed by states or markets, while allowing political subjects to confront and build power through various organizing tools in a multi-scalar fashion.

=== In Practice: Initiatives, Shared Frameworks and Plural Strategies ===

Eco-territorial internationalism is already in motion. It materializes in concrete networks, platforms, and coalitions that expand regionally to the global level. Alliances of frontline organizations committed to a Just Transition, even when nationally based, have recognized the tenets of transnational solidarity and systemic change. In the Global South, this often means articulating diverse territorial experiences to promote an alternative narrative to green capitalism, denouncing how the global energy transition often reproduces colonial logics. This involves fostering relationships between communities experimenting with post-extractivist, post-development, and pluriversal models of organizing life.

Named as such or not, eco-territorial internationalism is a lived practice rooted in territory, connected across borders, and aimed at systemic transformation. The shared recognition of interconnectedness through ecological conditions updates internationalism to the 21st Century, enriching strategies of autonomy beyond historical experiences of taking over the state. A few examples of initiatives fostering eco-territorial internationalist practice are the Amazon Indigenous G9 (Amazon-based), the Global Tapestry of Alternatives (Global), the Ecosocial and Intercultural Pact of the South (Latin America and the Caribbean), the Climate Justice Alliance (US-based), the Web of the Peoples (Brazil-based), and the People’s Summit articulations on climate (Global).

One of the key strengths of eco-territorial internationalism lies in its ability to articulate diversity without flattening it. It recognizes and honors the specific histories, identities, and geographies of struggles, while weaving them into shared frameworks such as just transition, energy democracy, food sovereignty, ecological debt, and degrowth. This convergence is not based on a single blueprint or ideology, but on plural, situated strategies that point toward a common horizon of ecosocial transformation.

Across territories, movements are resisting dispossession while building autonomous infrastructures of life. In the Andean region, Indigenous communities resisting lithium extraction in the salt flats of Argentina and Bolivia have joined forces with urban collectives fighting for clean water and decentralized energy. In North America, Indigenous resistance against oil pipelines has become a powerful symbol of territorial defense and energy democracy. In India, forest-dwelling communities have resisted corporate land grabs while sustaining forest-based livelihoods rooted in biocultural diversity.

These movements are not isolated. They are increasingly connected through transnational alliances, learning from each other’s practices and coordinating common actions. They contribute to a shared agenda:

* Denouncing green capitalism and exposing false solutions that commodify Nature and reproduce corporate and extractivist logics under new names.
* Promoting cross-border solidarity and knowledge exchange between communities defending land, water, forests, and urban commons.
* Coordinating global actions—such as climate marches, caravans, community-led tribunals, and decentralized days of resistance.
* Building grassroots communication and political infrastructure, independent from corporate platforms and algorithms, to amplify subaltern voices.
* Sharing tools for collective planning of production and resource use, based on the needs of life rather than profit, and promoting territorial governance that prioritizes care, equity, and sustainability.

Eco-territorial internationalism is not a fixed structure but a living process—nurtured by dialogue, practice, and the collective imagination of peoples in resistance. It is through this flexible and rooted articulation that another end of the world becomes not only possible, but already underway.

=== Ecological Anti-Imperialism and Anti-Capitalism in the Polycrisis ===

In a game of false solutions to the crises, corporations and powerful states promote green capitalism: a supposed ecological transition that maintains extractivist logics while exploiting new resources (e.g., lithium, rare earths) under the guise of decarbonization. This has led to a new phase of green extractivism, especially in the Global South, where entire regions become sacrifice zones to sustain the “green” consumption of the North. Under this model, decarbonization is pursued without questioning capitalism’s metabolism or imperial mode of living, perpetuating colonial hierarchies and deepening global inequalities. States engage in climate action through market tools and the root causes are undermined in order to ensure capitalism’s profit imperative.

Even the anti-imperialism camp is subject to this destructive strategy, built on classical notions of sovereignty based on control and exploitation of resources, in a context of militarization and financialization, made possible by the capitalist capture of the state. This logic is rendered obsolete by the worsening of interconnected crises and is more likely to lead to mutual annihilation than sovereign strongholds, especially when used to justify the expansion of destructive kinds of energy, agrarian, industrial and extractive activities. In the Global South, ideas of development and anti-imperialism have become embedded in the exploitation of Nature in ways that do not really shield production and territories from imperialist intervention, while delivering inequality and accelerating the path for localized collapses with great loss of life and economic costs.

When sovereignty is framed through capitalist interests, the incentive for international solidarity is also weakened and cooperation ends up limited to short-run economic and security goals. Eco-territorial internationalism challenges this logic by confronting ecological imperialism and calling for just transitions that are defined by communities themselves, often relying on alliances and networks to support one another and reclaim the notion of transition from its corporate capture, insisting that transitions must be democratic, territorial, and ecologically grounded. Because eco-territorial internationalism is rooted in the recognition of interdependence of life and production, it is an alternative to both statist and localist vices present in modern day internationalism. It promotes sovereignty based on ensuring a good life, but not at the expense of others today or in future generations. It stresses longevity and a common strategy for defeating the polycrisis.

Thus, an eco-territorial internationalism can nurture an ecological form of sovereignty, where strategies of stability, sustainability and longevity build from interdependence with the rest of the planet in relation to the ecological and material conditions we share at various scales. This is particularly important when entire territories risk disappearing – an ultimate kind of loss of sovereignty – unless capitalism, in fossil and green expressions, is overcome.

This internationalism based on care, solidarity and life is still under construction; it needs to grow, strengthen its ties, and build new alliances. It faces strong challenges in addition to the polycrisis itself: there is little time left to articulate struggles beyond mere survival and authoritarian forces insist on persecuting peoples involved in eco-territorial alternatives. But the weaving together of struggles for food, energy, territory, housing, race, gender, and class—forming the outlines of a global, intersectional, decentralized movement of movements – brings hope for another world shaped by communities in resistance, guided by ecological justice, and rooted in the defense of plural territories of life.

=== Further exploration ===
* Bringel, Breno. “Energy and ecosocial democracy against fossil gattopardismo.” In Energy Transitions: Just and Beyond, edited by Sabrina Fernandes and Benjamin Fogel. Alameda Institute, 2025. https://alameda.institute/dossier/energy-and-ecosocial-democracy-against-fossil-gattopardismo/
* Ecosocial and Intercultural Pact of the South, “Manifesto from the Peoples of the South: For an Ecosocial Energy Transition”, 2023. https://pactoecosocialdelsur.com/manifesto-for-an-ecosocial-energy-transition-from-the-peoples-of-the-south/
* Fernandes, Sabrina. “‘Just’ Means ‘Just’ Everywhere: How Extractivism Stands in the Way of an Internationalist Paradigm for Just Transitions.” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 37 (2024): 493–511. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-024-09475-4.
* Fernandes, Sabrina; Bringel, Breno (Eds) ‘Green Capitalism in the Americas’, NACLA Report on the Americas, special issue, Fall 2025.

====Videos ====

La Sandía Digital, (2019): La Energía de los Pueblos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXlA-2S_uAs

=== About the Authors ===
'''Breno Bringel''' is a Brazilian activist, an editor and a sociologist. Professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro and Senior Fellow at the Complutense University of Madrid, where he coordinates the Observatory of Geopolitics and Ecosocial Transitions. He is a member of the Ecosocial Pact of the South and co-editor of The Geopolitics of Green Colonialism (Pluto Press, 2024). His research focuses on critical geopolitics, social movements and socio-ecological transitions.

'''Sabrina Fernandes''' is a Brazilian activist, sociologist and political economist, currently the Head of Research at the Alameda Institute. She is part of the Ecosocial and Intercultural Pact of the South, a member of NACLA’s editorial committee, and a Senior Research Advisor to the Oxford Technology & Industrialisation for Development (TIDE) centre. Her research is focused on just transitions, Latin America, and internationalism.

Concepts:Eco-Territorial Internationalism/Breno Bringel and Sabrina Fernandez

2026-03-16T21:08:12Z

Carlos: Carlos moved page Concepts:Eco-Territorial Internationalism/Breno Bringel and Sabrina Fernandez to Concepts:Eco-Territorial Internationalism/Breno Bringel and Sabrina Fernandes

#REDIRECT [[Concepts:Eco-Territorial Internationalism/Breno Bringel and Sabrina Fernandes]]

Concepts:Eco-Territorial Internationalism / Breno Bringel and Sabrina Fernandez

2026-03-16T21:00:53Z

Carlos: Changed redirect target from Concepts:Eco-Territorial Internationalism/Breno Bringel and Sabrina Fernandez to Concepts:Eco-Territorial Internationalism/Breno Bringel and Sabrina Fernandes

#REDIRECT [[Concepts:Eco-Territorial Internationalism/Breno Bringel and Sabrina Fernandes]]

About us

2026-03-16T20:17:09Z

Carlos:

The Dictionary of Radical Alternatives is a Project Hosted by the [https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/ Global Tapestry of Alternatives]. The contents of the dictionary have been curated by the [https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/assembly:groups:wg:dictionary:index Dictionary Working Group] of the GTA which consists of:

Franco Augusto,
Matthew Burke,
Ashish Kothari,
Vera Kozak,
Lizah Makombore,
Vasna Ramasar,
Carlos Tornel,
Matías Vaccarezza.

The project was developed with the support of organization [https://oneproject.org/ One Project]

== List of Contributors ==

Academy of Democratic Modernity

Alberto Acosta

Alim Bandara

Arturo Escobar

Ashish Kothari

Breno Bringel

Carlos Tornel

Catherine “Katkat” Dalon

Deepika Nandan

Eleanor Finley

Gustavo Esteva

Hsar Doe Doh Moo

Jose Monfred C. Sy

Juan Pablo Soler

Karishma Kelsey

Lebohang Liepollo Pheko

Lizah Makombore

Mina Lorena Navarro

Miriam Lang

Mogau Kekana

Nicole Burton

Omar Valencia Pérez

Sabrina Fernandes

Şervîn Nudem

Silvia Marcos

Ted Rau

Tero Mustonen

Tukahia Ngatak

Verónica Barreda

Wangũi wa Kamonji

Yasnaya Aguilar Gil

Concepts:Eco-Territorial Internationalism

2026-03-16T20:15:37Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=The term "ecoterritorial internationalism" breaks down as: eco- (from Greek "oikos" for home/dwelling) referring to ecological systems, territorial from Latin "territorium" indicating land or region, and internationalism, inter- ("between") + national, meaning a political principle promoting cooperation between nations. Therefore, "ecoterritorial internationalism" refers to a political or social philosophy advocating for cross-border cooperation focused on ecological and land-based issues.
|concepts:description=When combined, "ecoterritorial internationalism" suggests a movement or doctrine that seeks to address ecological and territorial issues on an international scale, emphasizing cooperation between different regions and nations to manage shared environmental resources and land-based concerns.
|concepts:summary=Eco-territorial internationalism is a concept and a praxis that emerges from the convergence of social, ecological, and territorial struggles across borders. Drawing from the definition developed by Sabrina Fernades and Breno Bringel, it articulates experiences of resistance and transformation—such as democratic energy, agroecology, food sovereignty, workers’ control, and housing justice— by connecting local roots to a global horizon of systemic change. These are not isolated or merely “local” efforts; they embody a global sense of place and foster transnational solidarities grounded in justice, autonomy, and care. In the face of green colonialism, ecological imperialism, and systemic polycrises, this new internationalism reclaims the radical legacies of anti-imperialism while expanding the political imagination toward just transitions and ecological expressions of sovereignty. It challenges the dominant models of extractivist development and resists greenwashed capitalist transitions that reproduce sacrifice zones, particularly in the Global South. Eco-territorial internationalism does not abandon the state but goes beyond statist approaches, promoting multiscalar articulations and a biocentric politics of scale—from the body, to rivers and ecosystems. It is already in motion, through networks that articulate grassroots movements and resistances confronting the root causes of the crisis and shaping pluriversal futures.
|concepts:type=alternativeworldviews, companionconcepts
|concepts:relations=Autonomy, Radical Ecological Democracy, Zonas de Sacrificio, Eutopía, Democratic Confederalism, Social Ecology
|concepts:categories=Decolonization, Environemntal Racism, Futures, Re-Existence, Solidarity, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Eco-Territorial Internationalism.png
|concepts:illustrationauthor=Urvi Shah
|concepts:country=BR
|concepts:region=Global South
|concepts:geolocation=-14.235, -51.92528
}}
[[Category:FeaturedConcepts]]

Concepts:Pakikibaka

2026-03-11T21:55:49Z

Carlos:

Concepts:Pakikibaka

2026-03-11T21:55:14Z

Carlos:

Concepts:Salugpungan

2026-03-11T21:54:24Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:description=Salugpungan, meaning “unity” in the Talaingod Manobo language, is both a philosophy and a practice that guides the Lumad peoples of Mindanao in their struggle for land, life, and self-determination. Rooted in collective farming, rituals, schools, and everyday acts of cooperation, salugpungan reflects how survival and resistance are inseparable. Catherine “Katkat” Dalon recalls learning unity as a child in Lumad schools, where lessons combined literacy with communal practices like sharing food, planting seeds, and caring for children. Historically, the term also names the movement born in the 1990s against logging corporations and state militarization, when Lumad leaders and communities organized to defend the Pantaron Range and their ancestral territories. From this struggle emerged community schools that wove together education and resistance. Despite repression, closures, and the loss of teachers and leaders, salugpungan endures as a moral and political force: a reminder that victory is certain when strength is united.
|concepts:type=commonterms, praxes
|concepts:relations=Autonomy, Ta Madok Maka, Timuay, Pakikibaka, Kaitiakitanga
|concepts:categories=Intergenerational Justice, Re-Existence, Self Governance, Solidarity, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:banner=Concept-GenericBanner-02.jpg
|concepts:country=PH
|concepts:region=South East Asia
|concepts:geolocation=14.6187, 120.99114
}}

Concepts:Masling/Sutej Hugu

2026-03-11T21:41:36Z

Carlos:

{{Definition
|definition:concept=Concepts:Masling
|definition:summary=Masling is a special word used to praise the soundscape of waterfalls and the swarming of honeybees—sounds that inspired the legendary group singing Pasibutbut of the Bunun Isbukun people. Over time, it has come to serve as a unique metaphor and symbol for the highest inner qualities of a person: an unconditional calm and creativity that reframes difficulties into potential solutions, and the capacity to turn a world vision into action—transforming an unjust world order while sustaining dynamic balance and dialectical harmony.
|definition:author=Sutej Hugu
|definition:quote=When we speak of embeddedness and connectedness, we mean that Indigenous peoples live within interspecies habitats, bound to all beings around us.
}}
= Masling =

=== Origin of the concept and practice ===

Masling is a special term in Bunun Isbukun language that refers to the euphonious harmonies we experienced from the sounds of nature or human choral singing. In the traditional storytelling of Bunun Isbukun, they are inspired to learn the way of good group singing only by the natural revelations from the magnificent soundscape of big waterfalls in the mountain and the thrill humming of honey bees’ swarming in the forest.
According to Western musicology, the Bunun Isbukun ritual chanting “Pasibutbut” (pray for a bumper harvest of millet) is a three-parts mix choir with polyphonic overtone effect performed by eight to twelve men. But for the Bunun Isbukun communities, a successful chanting of Pasibutbut can be emerging only from our embeddedness and connectedness as an embodiment of the rooted relationship between nature and people, and we say that’s Masling to be achieved.

=== Transform into an action framework of sustainable self-determination ===

Around the 1990s, Indigenous Taiwan poet-activist Bukun Ismahasan Islituan extended the meaning of Masling to “keep dynamic balance and dialectic harmony through all disasters we encountered in natural disturbances and the colonial oppressions in the last four centuries. It is proposed for us to achieve the inner quality of unconditional calm and creativity for reframing the encountered difficulties with potential solutions, and the capacity to implement the world vision in transforming the injustice world order. We first adopted it in the leading group for building up the Taiwan Indigenous Conserved Territories Union (TICTU) 2014 and followed by organizing the Indigenous Taiwan Self-Determination Alliance (ITWSDA) 2019.

It has been thoroughly shared and discussed in our study circle for tribal activists. We defined together the kernel ideas of Masling to be the following key points as an action framework for sustainable self-determination:
* Based on Indigenous world vision, we set our movement to be struggling and striving for nature sovereignty over state sovereignty, following the Indigenous traditional knowledge and institutions as custodians for our territories of life to conserve the trinity of language, cultural and biological diversity, and promote an inclusive new nation-building for all creatures and all beings.

* We observe and respect the autonomy of all creatures, and we are embedded in the inter-species habitats and connected to all beings around us. The strength and resilience for survival and revival can only come out from this deep-rooted embeddedness and connectedness.
* Our seasonal livelihood laboring works with the natural rhythm and cycle of the eco-system. But we know very well also the natural disturbances that include typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, landslides, and pandemics which our ancestors have encountered with cautious preparation and held in awe and veneration with highest solidarity. While climate change may push natural disturbances to extremes, we need adaptation and innovation in our living tradition for the new situation.

From imperialist exploitation and modernist extractivism to settler colonialism today, it’s most important to learn from the 400 years history of the colonial oppressions for Indigenous Taiwan that started from the Dutch East India Company’s occupation in early 17th century. Let’s evolve from our cultural heritages, the alternative knowledge system and institutions to the dominant colonial state and capitalist market.
Develop a self-strengthening program for tribal activists

We all grow up in the historical process and through environmental events which greatly influenced the character setting and capacity building of our tribal activists. Following the KMT regime of Taiwan lifted the martial law of 38 years long in 1987, came the booming of all kinds of social movements including the struggle of rights for Indigenous peoples. The main force of the current Indigenous Taiwan movement was born in the martial law period (May 1949 to July 1987).

We were then baptized by the critical environmental disasters in Indigenous areas in the following decades. The 1999 Jiji earthquake, also known as 921 Earthquake, was a 7.3 ML or 7.7 Mw earthquake which occurred in Jiji, Nantou County, Taiwan on 21 September 1999 at 01:47:12 local time. 2,415 people were killed, 11,305 injured, and NT$300 billion worth of damage was done. Then, August 7, 2009: typhoon Morakot made landfall just before midnight. August 8, 2009: After midnight, most of the districts in south Taiwan recorded heavy rainfall, and wrought catastrophic damage. The disaster resulted in a total of 728 deaths and caused roughly NT$110 billion in damages. Most recently we went through the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan as part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). From its outbreak on 21 January 2020 to 19 March 2023, confirmed cases have been 10,239,998 with 19,005 deaths in Taiwan.

The restoration efforts following these disasters created a vital opportunity for Indigenous activists to return to their tribal communities and engage in solidarity actions. These included mapping traditional territories, rebuilding community self-governing bodies, learning from heritage keepers about traditional labor practices and storytelling, and rethinking our conditioned relationship to the state and market in search of creative alternatives. Most importantly, these actions inspired and encouraged a new generation of tribal activists. Furthermore, the Chernobyl disaster of 26 April 1986 and the Fukushima nuclear accident of 11 March 2011 became integral reference points that strengthened and energized the anti–nuclear waste dumping movement on Pongso no Tao. This, in turn, contributed to the self-empowerment of the Tao people, enabling them to negotiate collectively for an alternative future.

When we speak of embeddedness and connectedness, we mean that Indigenous peoples live within interspecies habitats, bound to all beings around us. This relationship must be embodied and enacted in our daily lives, our collective livelihoods, and our seasonal production activities—guided by Indigenous ecological knowledge and institutions, and initiated through ceremonies and rituals in every place of work. Tribal activists are engaged in a process of self-learning, building the strength to resist and the resilience to endure, ultimately becoming Indigenous revivers with the inner qualities and practical capacities of Masling. The broken environment and the crisis within our communities present both challenges and opportunities to restore our roots in the Indigenous bio-cultural matrix.

In this journey, embodiment precedes implementation—it is the foundation of self-strengthening and capacity-building. For mobilization and organization, we rely on spontaneous initiative, voluntary teamwork, resource pooling, and consensus-making as guiding principles in the Indigenous Taiwan movement. These approaches allow us to avoid dependence on Western-style funding and the hierarchies of managerial control. The path of the Indigenous reviver moves through stages: embedded and connected; exploring and evolving; channeling and visioning; revolving and restoring. From a deep-rooted bond with the land, nature, ancestral domains, and the spiritual realms, we draw forth a system of meaning and values to which we are bound: we depend upon and engage with it; we love and cherish it; we respect and hold it in sacred awe. Here, we cultivate our unique tribal-habitat knowledge systems—traditional subsistence practices, earth-sea ethics, and sacred taboos. Through them, we gain the energy to act, the wisdom to adapt, and the will to endure.

Through free association and self-organization, a new core of Indigenous resurgence is emerging—a collective of tribal organizers and action coordinators. Together, we initiate survival-based eco-occupations and direct self-governance. We develop collaborative economies and sustainable collective livelihoods. We build tribal governance structures, laying the foundations for an Indigenous political entity grounded in custodianship of our territories of life and in nature’s sovereignty. We are brothers and sisters not by blood or shared water source, but by a shared vision and sacred purpose—as comrades in spirit and praxis. We forge a self-determined Indigenous union for our common future. We gather as Indigenous revivers to ignite a wildfire of collective momentum, carrying forward the work of revolution and restoration. Ours is a way of collective subsistence in harmony with the ecological system—a way of living that reveals the mysteries of life itself.

=== Challenge to seek for a fresh turning point ===

This is a perennial struggle—to break free from the sweeping colonial exploitation of natural ecosystems and biodiversity by industrial “civilization” and capitalism, and to end the ongoing colonial oppression of Indigenous peoples by modern nation-states. The heart of our actions and practices lies in working together to dismantle the collective relationship of domination between colonizers and the colonized—both people and nature—that so deeply distorts our shared humanity and spirituality.

For post-traditional Indigenous revivers, the challenge is to reorient ourselves in a chaotic, post-colonial and post-modern world. We carry a deep understanding of history—from the violence of colonial conflicts and oppression to the unaddressed wounds of transitional injustice—and we seek a reconciliation between nature and people, a healing of trauma for all. Our traditional knowledge systems are rooted in the rhythmic cycles of ecological life, attuned not only to balance and renewal but also to the realities of catastrophic natural disturbances. Masling offers a simple yet profound path, embracing the diversity and complexity that both nature and culture must achieve.

In envisioning a common future for humankind, we move from the strictly Indigenous to the intentionally inclusive—turning from the sole preservation of diverse Indigenous traditions toward the embrace of pluralistic, intentional alternatives. Grounded in Indigenous decolonization and the sustainable self-determination of all ethnic groups in Taiwan, we are initiating an inclusive nation-building process for all beings and all forms of life. Its aim is to affirm the sovereignty of Nature on Earth, safeguarding the trinity of linguistic, cultural, and biological diversity. This is both the fundamental challenge and the great opportunity for the coming generations of Indigenous revivers.

=== Sources & References ===

* Pasibutbut (pray for a bumper harvest of millet) as a good example of Masling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ggweiEVd8U
* Tradition et Transformation : Le Pasi but but, Un Chant Polyphonique Des Bunun de Taiwan [Tradition and Transformation : Pasibutbut, a Polyphony of the Bunun of Taiwan]. by Wu, Rongshun. Paris 10, 1996. http://www.theses.fr/1996PA100121.
* The Moon Traveling Through Space-Time. by Lin Tai, Li Wensu, Lin Shengxian, Morning Star Publication, February 1998 (a Bunun Isbukun collection of traditional storytelling in IPA transcription and Traditional Chinese translation.)

=== About the Author ===

'''Sutej Hugu''', descendant from Tavokan of Siraya people, is an Indigenous transformation mobilizer and organizer. He has been the CEO of Tao Foundation on Pongso no Tao, founding regional coordinator for East and North Asia, ICCA Consortium, co-founder and secretary general of Taiwan Indigenous Conserved Territories Union. Currently as co-founder and chief advisor of Indigenous Taiwan Self-Determination Alliance, he is working with the Global Tapestry of Alternatives on building a global alliance for radical democracy and self-determined autonomy following the Nature sovereignty over the state sovereignty for conserving the trinity of language, cultural and biological diversity on this planet.

Concepts:Vernacular Values

2026-03-10T02:22:50Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=Noun: vernacular

(1) The language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region.
(2) The terminology used by people belonging to a specified group or engaging in a specialized activity.
(3) Architecture concerned with domestic and functional rather than public or monumental buildings.

Adjective: vernacular

(1) (Of language) spoken as one's mother tongue; not learned or imposed as a second language. (Of speech or written works) spoken or written using one's mother tongue. "vernacular literature"
(2) (Of architecture) concerned with domestic and functional rather than public or monumental buildings. "vernacular buildings"

Vernacular: Usually the vernacular, refers to the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region: he wrote in the vernacular to reach a larger audience.
|concepts:description=Vernacular values, in Illich’s sense, are the use-values, practices, and forms of livelihood that arise from autonomous, homegrown, and reciprocal ways of meeting everyday needs outside the market and bureaucratic control. They refer to activities people do for themselves and with others—such as speaking, caring, feeding, building, learning, or healing—without these being organized primarily through commodity exchange, professional management, or state provision. In this sense, vernacular values name a domain of subsistence, competence, and communal autonomy that resists commodification and the economic logic of scarcity.
|concepts:type=alternativeworldviews, praxes, companionconcepts
|concepts:relations=Eutopía, Relationality, Buen Vivir
|concepts:categories=Decolonization, Futures, Re-Existence, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Vernacular Values.jpg
|concepts:illustrationauthor=Omar Valencia Pérez
|concepts:banner=Concept-GenericBanner-02.jpg
|concepts:country=MX
|concepts:region=Latin America
|concepts:geolocation=18.92421, -99.22157
}}
<html>
<style>
ul.mw-prefixindex-list {
margin-left: 3.5ex;
transform: rotate(180deg);
}
ul.mw-prefixindex-list > li {
transform: rotate(-180deg);
}
</style>
</html>

Concepts:Vernacular Values

2026-03-10T02:22:26Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=noun: vernacular

(1) The language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region.
(2) The terminology used by people belonging to a specified group or engaging in a specialized activity.
(3) Architecture concerned with domestic and functional rather than public or monumental buildings.

adjective: vernacular

(1) (Of language) spoken as one's mother tongue; not learned or imposed as a second language. (Of speech or written works) spoken or written using one's mother tongue. "vernacular literature"
(2) (Of architecture) concerned with domestic and functional rather than public or monumental buildings. "vernacular buildings"

Vernacular: Usually the vernacular, refers to the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region: he wrote in the vernacular to reach a larger audience.
|concepts:description=Vernacular values, in Illich’s sense, are the use-values, practices, and forms of livelihood that arise from autonomous, homegrown, and reciprocal ways of meeting everyday needs outside the market and bureaucratic control. They refer to activities people do for themselves and with others—such as speaking, caring, feeding, building, learning, or healing—without these being organized primarily through commodity exchange, professional management, or state provision. In this sense, vernacular values name a domain of subsistence, competence, and communal autonomy that resists commodification and the economic logic of scarcity.
|concepts:type=alternativeworldviews, praxes, companionconcepts
|concepts:relations=Eutopía, Relationality, Buen Vivir
|concepts:categories=Decolonization, Futures, Re-Existence, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Vernacular Values.jpg
|concepts:illustrationauthor=Omar Valencia Pérez
|concepts:banner=Concept-GenericBanner-02.jpg
|concepts:country=MX
|concepts:region=Latin America
|concepts:geolocation=18.92421, -99.22157
}}
<html>
<style>
ul.mw-prefixindex-list {
margin-left: 3.5ex;
transform: rotate(180deg);
}
ul.mw-prefixindex-list > li {
transform: rotate(-180deg);
}
</style>
</html>

Concepts:Vernacular Values

2026-03-10T02:19:32Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=ver·nac·u·lar /vərˈnakyələr/
noun: vernacular; noun: the vernacular
(1) the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region.
(2) The terminology used by people belonging to a specified group or engaging in a specialized activity.
(3) architecture concerned with domestic and functional rather than public or monumental buildings.

adjective: vernacular
(1) (of language) spoken as one's mother tongue; not learned or imposed as a second language.
(of speech or written works) spoken or written using one's mother tongue.
"vernacular literature"
(2) (of architecture) concerned with domestic and functional rather than public or monumental buildings. "vernacular buildings"

Vernacular: (usually the vernacular) the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region: he wrote in the vernacular to reach a larger audience.
|concepts:type=alternativeworldviews, praxes, companionconcepts
|concepts:relations=Eutopía, Relationality, Buen Vivir
|concepts:categories=Decolonization, Futures, Re-Existence, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Vernacular Values.jpg
|concepts:illustrationauthor=Omar Valencia Pérez
|concepts:banner=Concept-GenericBanner-02.jpg
|concepts:country=MX
|concepts:region=Latin America
|concepts:geolocation=18.92421, -99.22157
}}
<html>
<style>
ul.mw-prefixindex-list {
margin-left: 3.5ex;
transform: rotate(180deg);
}
ul.mw-prefixindex-list > li {
transform: rotate(-180deg);
}
</style>
</html>

Concepts:Ubuntu

2026-03-10T02:10:30Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:summary=Ubuntu is a radical Afrikan philosophy and cosmology that conceives personhood not as an individual attribute but as a condition realized through moral, spiritual, and communal relationships. It affirms that being human means living in reciprocity, dignity, and accountability within a shared order of justice, care, and restoration. Rooted in ancestral, ecological, and relational ethics, Ubuntu locates humanity within an interdependent web that includes land, ancestors, and the cosmos. It is not a liberal ideal of harmony or interdependence but a decolonial ontology of being that resists domination and reclaims Afrikan epistemologies of balance and liberation. Ubuntu insists that justice and community are inseparable, and that genuine personhood requires restoring right relations disrupted by colonialism, patriarchy, and racial capitalism. As such, it offers both a philosophy of ethical life and a revolutionary framework for rebuilding collective futures grounded in Afrikan cosmological and moral principles.
|concepts:type=commonterms, alternativeworldviews, praxes
|concepts:relations=Autonomy, Buen Vivir, Comunalidad, Kotahitanga, Masling, Ta Madok Maka
|concepts:categories=Decolonization, Re-Existence, Self Governance, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Ubuntu.jpg
|concepts:illustrationauthor=Mogau Kekana
|concepts:banner=Concept-GenericBanner-01.jpg
|concepts:region=Africa
|concepts:geolocation=0.19775, 24.96094
}}

Concepts:Autogestión

2026-02-24T15:54:52Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=French autogestion, from auto- aut- + gestion administration, from Latin gestion-, gestio performance
|concepts:description=Autogestión (self-management) refers to the collective and horizontal organization of social, economic, and political life without hierarchical authority or external control. Rooted in principles of mutual aid, direct democracy, and autonomy, it emphasizes that communities, workplaces, and associations should be directly managed by those who participate in them, rather than by states, bosses, or bureaucracies. Autogestión rejects capitalist and statist forms of centralization, seeking instead to create federated networks of self-organized groups where decisions are made through assemblies and consensus. As both a practice and a political horizon, it embodies the anarchist vision of a society based on equality, freedom, and solidarity.
|concepts:type=commonterms, praxes
|concepts:categories=Re-Existence, Self Governance, Solidarity, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:banner=Concept-GenericBanner-02.jpg
|concepts:country=MX
|concepts:region=Global South
|concepts:geolocation=-0.36255, -19.21509
}}

Concepts:Zonas de Sacrificio

2026-02-24T14:01:38Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=The term “sacrifice zone” emerged in the 1970s within U.S. land management debates, originally describing the overgrazed, degraded patches around water sources in livestock farming. It gained broader visibility in 1973 when a National Academy of Sciences report applied it to the lasting ecological and social damage of coal strip-mining in the American West. The concept soon entered wider environmental and political discourse, especially during the energy crisis of the 1970s, when policymakers used it to justify local environmental destruction in the name of national energy security. Journalists and activists amplified the term to reveal how certain places—and by extension, their inhabitants—were deemed disposable for the “greater good.” By the 1980s and 1990s, the environmental justice movement embraced “sacrifice zone” to highlight the disproportionate burden borne by communities of color and low-income groups, who faced toxic contamination and pollution from industries. Today, the term is applied more broadly to areas subjected to harmful extractive activities, from fossil fuel production and chemical industries to large-scale renewable energy projects, underscoring the ongoing trade-offs and injustices in the pursuit of economic growth and energy transitions.
|concepts:type=commonterms, alternativeworldviews, praxes, companionconcepts
|concepts:relations=Land Back, Eco-Territorial Internationalism, Radical Ecological Democracy, Autogestión, Autonomy
|concepts:categories=Environemntal Racism, Intergenerational Justice, Re-Existence, Solidarity, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Zonas de Sacrificio.png
|concepts:illustrationauthor=Nicole Marie Burton
|concepts:banner=Concept-GenericBanner-02.jpg
|concepts:country=US
|concepts:region=South in the North
|concepts:geolocation=30.51908, -91.52086
}}

Concepts:Vernacular Values

2026-02-24T14:00:39Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=ver·nac·u·lar
/vərˈnakyələr/
noun
noun: vernacular; noun: the vernacular
(1) the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region.
"he wrote in the vernacular to reach a larger audience"
(2) The terminology used by people belonging to a specified group or engaging in a specialized activity.
(3) architecture concerned with domestic and functional rather than public or monumental buildings.
"buildings in which Gothic merged into farmhouse vernacular"
adjective
adjective: vernacular
(1) (of language) spoken as one's mother tongue; not learned or imposed as a second language.
(of speech or written works) spoken or written using one's mother tongue.
"vernacular literature"
(2) (of architecture) concerned with domestic and functional rather than public or monumental buildings.
"vernacular buildings"

Orign early 17th century: from Latin vernaculus ‘domestic, native’ (from verna ‘home-born’)
|concepts:description=Vernacular: (usually the vernacular) the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region: he wrote in the vernacular to reach a larger audience.
|concepts:type=alternativeworldviews, praxes, companionconcepts
|concepts:relations=Eutopía, Relationality, Buen Vivir
|concepts:categories=Decolonization, Futures, Re-Existence, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Vernacular Values.jpg
|concepts:illustrationauthor=Omar Valencia Pérez
|concepts:banner=Concept-GenericBanner-02.jpg
|concepts:country=MX
|concepts:region=Latin America
|concepts:geolocation=18.92421, -99.22157
}}
<html>
<style>
ul.mw-prefixindex-list {
margin-left: 3.5ex;
transform: rotate(180deg);
}
ul.mw-prefixindex-list > li {
transform: rotate(-180deg);
}
</style>
</html>

Concepts:Uhuru

2026-02-24T13:59:42Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=In terms of origin, etymology, and epistemology, uhuru is an abstract noun built with the Swahili prefix u- (forming “-ness” or “-ity”) plus huru (“free”), itself derived from Arabic ḥurr and ḥurriyya (“free” / “freedom”).
|concepts:description=Uhuru is a Kiswahili word meaning “freedom” or “independence,” and in much of Eastern and Southern Africa it names both a political goal and an unfinished project of decolonization. Epistemologically, it sits inside wider decolonial projects that challenge Eurocentric definitions of “freedom”: thinkers of African decoloniality and Afro-feminism argue that uhuru involves reclaiming indigenous knowledge systems, gender justice and land-based autonomy, so that freedom is understood not as abstract individual rights alone, but as collective capacity to live, know, and govern otherwise after empire.
|concepts:type=commonterms, alternativeworldviews, praxes
|concepts:relations=Ubuntu, Ujamaa, Autogestión, Swaraj, Harambee
|concepts:categories=Care, Decolonization, Futures, Re-Existence, Self Governance, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Uhuru.jpg
|concepts:illustrationauthor=Mogau Kekana
|concepts:country=KE
|concepts:region=Africa
}}
[[Category:FeaturedConcepts]]

Concepts:Ubuntu

2026-02-24T13:58:28Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=The word Ubuntu is an ancient African term, originating from the Nguni Bantu languages, that roughly translates to "humanity to others" or "I am because we are". It is rooted in the humanist philosophy that a person's identity is shaped by their community and their relationships with others. This concept is encapsulated in the Zulu proverb, "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu," which means "a person is a person through other people".
|concepts:summary=Ubuntu is a radical Afrikan philosophy and cosmology that conceives personhood not as an individual attribute but as a condition realized through moral, spiritual, and communal relationships. It affirms that being human means living in reciprocity, dignity, and accountability within a shared order of justice, care, and restoration. Rooted in ancestral, ecological, and relational ethics, Ubuntu locates humanity within an interdependent web that includes land, ancestors, and the cosmos. It is not a liberal ideal of harmony or interdependence but a decolonial ontology of being that resists domination and reclaims Afrikan epistemologies of balance and liberation. Ubuntu insists that justice and community are inseparable, and that genuine personhood requires restoring right relations disrupted by colonialism, patriarchy, and racial capitalism. As such, it offers both a philosophy of ethical life and a revolutionary framework for rebuilding collective futures grounded in Afrikan cosmological and moral principles.
|concepts:type=commonterms, alternativeworldviews, praxes
|concepts:relations=Autonomy, Buen Vivir, Comunalidad, Kotahitanga, Masling, Ta Madok Maka
|concepts:categories=Decolonization, Re-Existence, Self Governance, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Ubuntu.jpg
|concepts:illustrationauthor=Mogau Kekana
|concepts:banner=Concept-GenericBanner-01.jpg
|concepts:region=Africa
|concepts:geolocation=0.19775, 24.96094
}}

Concepts:Ubuntu

2026-02-24T13:58:11Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=The word Ubuntu is an ancient African term, originating from the Nguni Bantu languages, that roughly translates to "humanity to others" or "I am because we are". It is rooted in the humanist philosophy that a person's identity is shaped by their community and their relationships with others. This concept is encapsulated in the Zulu proverb, "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu," which means "a person is a person through other people".
|concepts:summary=Ubuntu is a radical Afrikan philosophy and cosmology that conceives personhood not as an individual attribute but as a condition realized through moral, spiritual, and communal relationships. It affirms that being human means living in reciprocity, dignity, and accountability within a shared order of justice, care, and restoration. Rooted in ancestral, ecological, and relational ethics, Ubuntu locates humanity within an interdependent web that includes land, ancestors, and the cosmos. It is not a liberal ideal of harmony or interdependence but a decolonial ontology of being that resists domination and reclaims Afrikan epistemologies of balance and liberation. Ubuntu insists that justice and community are inseparable, and that genuine personhood requires restoring right relations disrupted by colonialism, patriarchy, and racial capitalism. As such, it offers both a philosophy of ethical life and a revolutionary framework for rebuilding collective futures grounded in Afrikan cosmological and moral principles.
|concepts:type=commonterms, alternativeworldviews, praxes
|concepts:relations=Autonomy, Buen Vivir, Comunalidad, Kotahitanga, Masling, Ta Madok Maka
|concepts:categories=Decolonization, Re-Existence, Self Governance, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Ubuntu.jpg
|concepts:banner=Concept-GenericBanner-01.jpg
|concepts:region=Africa
|concepts:geolocation=0.19775, 24.96094
}}

File:Concepts-illustration-Ubuntu.jpg

2026-02-24T13:58:02Z

Carlos:

Concepts:Total Liberation

2026-02-24T13:54:40Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:description=Total liberation refers to a radical ethical and political framework that seeks the dismantling of all systems of domination—human over human, human over nonhuman animals, and human over nature. It argues that struggles against capitalism, patriarchy, racism, colonialism, and the state cannot be separated from the struggle against speciesism and ecological destruction, since all are rooted in hierarchical logics of control and exploitation. Total liberation thus calls for an integrated praxis that combines social revolution, ecological defense, and animal liberation, envisioning a world free from oppression in every form.
|concepts:type=commonterms, alternativeworldviews, praxes, companionconcepts
|concepts:categories=Care, Decolonization, Re-Existence, Self Governance, Solidarity, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:banner=Concept-GenericBanner-02.jpg
|concepts:region=South in the North
}}

Concepts:Timuay

2026-02-24T13:54:10Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=Thimuay (also spelled thimuway, timuay, and thimuway, among other variations) is the name of the most senior ancestral leader among the Subanon people of the Zamboanga Peninsula in the Philippines. Less senior ancestral leaders are called "datu", just as they are elsewhere in the Philippines. Thimuay is equivalent to the titles "lakan", "sultan", or "rajah" in other Philippine cultures.
|concepts:description=The concept refers to a traditional governance system of the Teduray and Lambangian peoples in Mindanao, Philippines, highlighting its communal, collective, and pluralist foundations. Rooted in the term timu—to gather—the Timuay Justice and Governance (TJG) system embodies Indigenous philosophies of relationality, equality, and peace through collective leadership, community participation, and stewardship of nature. The article traces its historical resilience against colonial and state suppression, its clandestine survival during conflicts, and its revival through Indigenous movements and legal recognition under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA). Confronting the erosion of communal values under capitalism, TJG emerges as both a critique of individualist, profit-oriented systems and a living alternative grounded in communal ownership, ecological guardianship, and pluralism. By restoring and strengthening Timuay practices, the article argues, Indigenous communities not only reclaim self-determination but also offer a vital vision of justice and sustainability for contemporary society.
|concepts:type=commonterms, alternativeworldviews, praxes
|concepts:relations=Comunalidad, Buen Vivir, Radical Ecological Democracy, Pakikibaka, Democratic Confederalism, Kaitiakitanga
|concepts:categories=Decolonization, Intergenerational Justice, Self Governance, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Timuay.png
|concepts:illustrationauthor=Deepika Nandan
|concepts:banner=concepts-banner-Timuay.png
|concepts:country=PH
|concepts:region=South East Asia
|concepts:geolocation=12.87972, 121.77402
}}
[[Category:FeaturedConcepts]]

Concepts:Tequio

2026-02-24T13:53:23Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=Etymologically, tequio comes from the Nahuatl tequitl—“work,” “task,” or “tribute”— Tequio is an Indigenous system of collective work in Mexico—especially in Oaxaca—through which members of a community contribute unpaid labour to build, maintain, or repair infrastructure and services that benefit everyone (paths, water systems, schools, plazas, community radios, fiestas, etc.). It is usually obligatory for adult community members, is organized through assemblies and authorities, and is considered both an honour and a civic/communal duty rather than “volunteer work” or a wage relation.
|concepts:type=commonterms, alternativeworldviews, praxes
|concepts:relations=Autonomy, Minga, Autogestión, Buen Vivir, Swaraj
|concepts:categories=Care, Decentralization, Re-Existence, Self Governance, Solidarity
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Tequio.jpg
|concepts:illustrationauthor=Omar Valencia Pérez
|concepts:banner=Concept-GenericBanner-02.jpg
|concepts:country=MX
|concepts:region=Latin America
}}

Concepts:Ta Madok Maka

2026-02-24T13:52:32Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=Ta Madok Maka (The Indigenous Karen’s Concept and Praxis of Reciprocity)
|concepts:description=Ta Madok Maka—translated as “I help you, you help me”—is a core philosophical and moral principle of the Indigenous Karen (K’nyaw) people, embodying reciprocity, mutual respect, and interconnected wellbeing among humans, nature, and the spirit world.
|concepts:summary=Rooted in ancestral belief systems, customary institutions, and livelihood practices, Ta Madok Maka underpins Karen cultural life through acts of solidarity, empathy, and collective care. It extends beyond human-to-human relationships to encompass balanced and harmonious coexistence with sacred lands, waters, forests, wildlife, and guardian spirits, reinforced by complementary values such as Ta Kwamoo Kwakheh Hlotha (“caring for each other for collective survival and wellbeing”). This principle is expressed in rotational farming, cultural ceremonies like Lar Ku Ki Sue, and the protection of spiritual territories such as Day Por Htu (umbilical cord forests) and Htee Meh K’lar (water mirrors), which integrate ecological stewardship with spiritual obligations.
|concepts:type=commonterms, alternativeworldviews, praxes
|concepts:relations=Timuay, Buen Vivir, Radical Demcoracy
|concepts:categories=Care, Decolonization, Re-Existence, Solidarity, Struggle
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Ta Madok Maka.png
|concepts:illustrationauthor=Deepika Nandan
|concepts:banner=concepts-banner-Ta Madok Maka.png
|concepts:country=MM
|concepts:region=South East Asia
|concepts:geolocation=21.91622, 95.95597
}}

Concepts:Susu

2026-02-24T13:51:28Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=The word "Susu" has different origins and meanings, including the Mande people and language of West Africa, a term of endearment in some African and Asian cultures, and the word for "milk" in Indonesian and other Austronesian languages. It is also the name of an informal West African and Caribbean savings club.
|concepts:description=Terms like Stokvels (South Africa), Susu (Ghana), and Mukando (Zimbabwe) as forms of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) that have long provided financial resilience in African communities. Far more than informal savings clubs, these associations embody the philosophy of Ubuntu, emphasizing reciprocity, solidarity, and collective vitality. Historically rooted in women’s cooperatives, they have supported farming, education, health care, social obligations, and small-scale entrepreneurship, while also strengthening collective bargaining power and food security. Their adaptability is evident in the wide variety of stokvels in South Africa and in the integration of susu collectors with formal banking in Ghana, bridging informal and formal economies. By pooling risks and resources, these groups function as community safety nets that empower women, build resilience, and sustain livelihoods. As they expand and interact with financial institutions, questions arise about how to preserve their community-driven ethos while scaling their transformative potential.
|concepts:type=commonterms, alternativeworldviews, praxes
|concepts:relations=Ubuntu, Radical Ecological Democracy, Comunalidad
|concepts:categories=Care, Decentralization, Decolonization, Self Governance, Solidarity
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Susu.jpg
|concepts:illustrationauthor=Mogau Kekana
|concepts:region=Africa
|concepts:geolocation=0.32282, 23.96165
}}
[[Category:FeaturedConcepts]]

Concepts:Sociocracy

2026-02-24T13:50:33Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology="Sociocracy" comes from the Latin word socius, meaning "companion" or "friend," and the Greek root cracy (from kratos), meaning "power" or "rule". Therefore, sociocracy literally means "rule by companions" or "peer governance," referring to a system of governance by people who regularly interact and have a common goa
|concepts:description=Sociocracy is a governance system designed to guide collective and individual decision-making through shared power, non-coercive processes, and alignment with an organization’s purpose. Originating with Dutch engineer Gerard Endenburg and influenced by Quaker decision-making, pacifism, natural systems, and cybernetics, sociocracy’s core principle is that those doing the work should make the related decisions. Its structure relies on autonomous, interconnected “circles” that hold decision-making authority over specific domains, ensuring that the division of labor aligns with the division of governance. Practices such as double linking between circles and consent-based decision-making create a distributed, non-hierarchical system in which all voices are heard and power is balanced.
|concepts:type=commonterms, praxes, companionconcepts
|concepts:categories=Decentralization, Self Governance, Solidarity
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Sociocracy.png
|concepts:illustrationauthor=Nicole Marie Burton
|concepts:banner=Concept-GenericBanner-01.jpg
|concepts:country=US
|concepts:region=South in the North
|concepts:geolocation=38.7946, -106.53484
}}

Concepts:Social Ecology

2026-02-24T13:50:05Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:ethimology=The term "social ecology" combines social, from the Latin socius (companion, ally, or society), and ecology, from the Greek oikos (house, home) and logia (study of). It describes the study of the relationship between humans and their environments, with a prominent philosophical movement founded by Murray Bookchin arguing that environmental degradation stems from societal hierarchies and inequalities.
|concepts:type=commonterms, praxes
|concepts:relations=Radical Ecological Democracy, Democratic Confederalism, Ta Madok Maka, Comunalidad, Masling
|concepts:categories=Decentralization, Self Governance, Solidarity
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:illustration=concepts-illustration-Social Ecology.png
|concepts:illustrationauthor=Nicole Marie Burton
|concepts:country=US
|concepts:region=South in the North
|concepts:geolocation=44.47588, -73.21207
}}

Concepts:Radical Ecological Democracy

2026-02-24T13:48:10Z

Carlos:

{{Concepts
|concepts:description=The term "radical ecological democracy" combines radical democracy, which advocates for the fundamental rethinking and expansion of democratic processes, with ecological principles, emphasizing the need for societies to live within planetary limits and respect nature's integrity. It emerged from critiques of the dominant "development" model, calling for decentralized governance, localized economies, respect for cultural diversity, and a focus on human well-being and ecological resilience. The phrase also reflects the collective search for sustainable alternatives to current economic and political systems, drawing inspiration from grassroots movements and Indigenous communities.
|concepts:type=commonterms, alternativeworldviews, praxes, companionconcepts
|concepts:relations=Swaraj, Autonomy, Democratic Confederalism, Sociocracy, Ta Madok Maka, Timuay, Eco-Territorial Internationalism
|concepts:categories=Care, Decentralization, Decolonization, Environemntal Racism, Futures, Self Governance
|concepts:relevant=yes
|concepts:banner=Concept-GenericBanner-01.jpg
|concepts:country=IN
|concepts:region=South Asia
|concepts:geolocation=23.16404, 78.57188
}}