Living Well in a Neoliberal World: An Alternative Vision of Climate Change

This study is a Foucauldian exploration of \u27Living Well,\u27 an alternative discourse of climate change inspired by indigenous Andean worldviews and championed by the Bolivian MAS government. As climate change accelerates, the world looks for solutions to the impending climate crises. \u27Living Well\u27 proposes that the climate crisis has resulted from the global hegemony of neoliberalism and in response, it proposes a vision of life based on communal values, dialogue, popular participation, and simplistic living. To explore this resistance movement, I conducted nine in-depth interviews with environmentally engaged citizens of Cochabamba, Bolivia. I suggest that \u27Living Well\u27 is not singular. In contrast, there are two main distinct interpretations resulting from the diametrically opposing Andean worldview (cosmovision) and Occidental worldview. I argue that its practice will be realized through the culmination of grassroots environmental action, directly connected to emerging citizenship regimes based on popular sovereignty, and struggles for inter-cultural dialogue