Spaces for Buen Vivir in the City? Urban Agroecology and Decolonial Processes in Bogotá
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Since the late 1990s, there has been a significant rise in social movements engaging with Buen Vivir (good living) in the Latin American context. Buen Vivir is a cosmovision, a practice and a political proposal. It is usually associated with rural spaces and Indigenous communities. In this study, I show the relevance of Buen Vivir for urban spaces and explore its practical manifestations in urban-gardening contexts in terms of space, practices, knowledge sharing and urban–rural connections. Bogotá was selected as a case study due to its increasing number of urban agroecology projects in recent decades. Based on eighteen months of fieldwork inspired by participatory action research (PAR), this study addresses the following question: How do urban agroecological initiatives create spaces for Buen Vivir within urban areas? By highlighting the contributions of urban gardens to balanced nature–society relations, the study discusses the potential and limitations of such projects, which decolonise urban spaces. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .
Source: Global Environment
Author: Birgit Hoinle
Institution: University of Hohenheim
Language: English
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4411273610