ABSTRACT
In Ecuador, the alternative concept of buen vivir as a worldview opposed to modern development has suffered a deep resignification. As long as it was transplanted onto existing governance tools of the modern/colonial state as a new public policy horizon, apparently neutral institutional mechanisms, procedures and regulations deployed their own momentum and reverted transformative impulses away from postdevelopment. However, at the same time at the local level, different logics of doing government were introduced into existing institutional settings, opening spaces for the practice of buen vivir by transforming the mechanics of the modern/colonial state itself. This chapter explores two of these experiences: Nabón county in the southern province of Azuay, and Cayambe county near the capital Quito. Both processes have redefined the role of the state and of organized communities at the local level. The text explores their transformative potential as postdevelopment practices, as well as some challenges they face.
