ABSTRACT
Global financial, ecological, and geopolitical crises are exacerbating the threats to the livelihoods of the most vulnerable groups, and now they are increasingly impacting more privileged groups that had previously been shielded from such threats. These developments heighten popular awareness of the global capitalist system’s inherent contradictions, opening possibilities for exploration of alternatives that are better suited to meet human needs and protect the environment. For instance, following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, activists in the U.S. gulf region began coming together with others around the country to resist displacement and to demand a “right to the city” (Gotham and Greenberg 2014, 133), and following the 2008 global financial collapse, the World Social Forum was organized around the theme “The Crisis of Civilization.” This meeting helped bring more widespread attention to ideas that have long been central in indigenous cultures and that are integral to the environmental justice framework-the notions of buen vivir, or living well and in harmony with the earth, as an alternative organizing principle for society, and the related idea of rights for Mother Earth (Smith 2014).
