Walking on the Edge of the Abyss: Conversations with Gustavo Esteva (Global University for Sustainability Book Series)

The book is a collection of essays written by Gustavo Esteva over the last 20 years. In this book, Gustavo Esteva, renowned in Mexico as a philosopher on education and on developmentalism, collects four major areas of his writings: on learning, development, autonomy, and interculturality. A memorial to a great thinker, this book stimulates thoughts on developmentalism across the global south. About the Global U Book Series Preface by Kin Chi Lau The legacies of Gustavo Esteva Preface by Rafael Escobedo Acknowledgments Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures 1 Introduction Reference 2 Learning Introduction Celebration of Learning Giving up on Education Lessons from Below Zapatista Pedagogy: A Story of Emancipation The Emperor Has No Clothes The Curriculum The Zapatista’s Pedagogical Substance Reconstituting Ourselves A Call Professionalism Struggles for the Freedom to Learn Beyond an Educating Society A Couple of Oaxacan Experiences: The Communal Middle Schools and Unitierra Rebuilding a Convivial Society Notes References 3 Development Introduction Unlearning the Pretension to Be God Toward Post-Developmentalism The Challenges of Mutation Declassification of Society The Mutation Regenerating the Commons The New Orientations of people’s Initiatives The Prospect Cross-Cultural Perspectives for the Post-Development Era The New Mood of People’s Movements Relocalization of people’s Movements The people’s Discourse Bringing the Margins to the Center Notes References 4 Autonomy Introduction They Are Coming The Rumor The Uprising The Puzzle The New Perspective Regenerating the Place: The Case of Disposable Children The Modern Creation of Waste Taking Them Away Recycling The Path to Localization Regenerating the Place Reembedding Food in Agriculture What I don’t Want to Do Beyond Reminiscences A World Where Scarcity Cannot Appear Giving up Scarcity Regenerating the Art of Living and Dying Hope from the Margins: A Future of Convivial Polities To Be Ourselves: A Story of Hopes Bibliographical Clues The Meaning and Agenda of Anti-systemic Movements The Turning Point The End of the American Empire The End of the Old Regime in Mexico The Reactionaries Mutations in Social Movements The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) The Zapatista Inspiration and Our Present Tasks Notes References 5 Interculturality Introduction Horizons of Interculturality The Disease of Underdevelopment The Intercultural Question The Cultural Backdrop Interculturality Intercultural Dialogue The First Intercultural Dialogue? The Current Dialogue Humanity? Pluralism From Tolerance to Hospitality, Friendship, and Surprise Beyond the Self: Regenerating people’s Selves Seeing with the Eyes Beyond the Text The Trouble of Being Beyond the Self Losing and Recovering Memory and Reality When the Word Became the Verb The King Wears no Clothes Rethinking the Size of the World Rooting Again Our Lives The Meaning of the Global Crisis and “Recovery” for Study Abroad: What Are We Preparing Students for?6 New, Dark Expectations The End of an Era From the Bottom-Up El buen vivir (Living Well) Radical Pluralism The Intercultural Dialogue Back Home Notes References References Index