Mapping Buen Vivir: Cartographies of Alternative Spaces and Local Development in Brazil and Portugal

Abstract Book of the 12th International Academic Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences

Year: 2026

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Mapping Buen Vivir: Cartographies of Alternative Spaces and Local Development in Brazil and Portugal

Carlos Eduardo Panosso

ABSTRACT:

This study explores the cartography of Buen Vivir as an analytical and methodological approach to identifying alternative spaces of local development that challenge dominant growth-centered paradigms. Drawing on critical perspectives aligned with post-development, degrowth, and pluriversal thinking, the research understands Buen Vivir as a situated and relational process rather than a universal model. Based on ongoing fieldwork in Brazil and Portugal, the study maps empirical experiences such as the Feira do Bosque in Palmas and community-based initiatives in the region of Bragança, where practices of solidarity economy, informal exchange, and collective organization reshape socio-spatial dynamics. These spaces are approached as living cartographies, revealing modes of existence grounded in cooperation, territorial belonging, and ecological sensibilities. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative and exploratory perspective, combining field observations, narrative accounts, and critical interpretation. The findings suggest that these experiences embody forms of resistance to hegemonic development rationalities while simultaneously prefiguring alternative futures rooted in autonomy, conviviality, and sustainability. By mapping these practices, the study contributes to debates on the plurality of development pathways and the epistemological relevance of territorially embedded knowledge. Furthermore it engages with implicit dialogues from Latin American and European critical traditions, emphasizing how everyday practices produce knowledge and political imagination beyond institutional frameworks. The comparative perspective reinforces the relevance of translocal analysis for understanding convergences and divergences in the enactment of Buen Vivir across different socio-cultural contexts, strengthening its analytical and transformative potential in contemporary social sciences debates while opening avenues for future research and policy experimentation in diverse.

Keywords: Buen Vivir; Cartography; Local Development; Degrowth; Territory