Arturo Escobar

Arturo Escobar is a Colombian anthropologist whose academic work focuses on political ecology, development anthropology and development critique, among others. He has taught mostly at the University of North California and is currently an associate professor, teaching in the Design and Creation PhD programme at the Universidad de Caldas in Colombia and in Environmental Science at the Universidad del Valle in Cali. Escobar is an important activist researcher working on territorial struggles against extractivism and transitions in terms of post-development and post-capitalism. He has been instrumental in disseminating the ideas, values and experiences of the Pluriverse.

Arturo Escobar became internationally known for his analysis of how international institutions and governments of industrialised countries use the discourse of development as an instrument of domination over poorer countries.

 

Escobar does not speak of alternative development, but of alternatives TO development. These, he says, can be found, for example, in social movements, local cultures and indigenous peoples who are, quote, „way ahead of us in thinking civilisational change.“

 

He is also known as the editor of several books such as ‚Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of The Third World‘ and is one of the authors and editors of the book ‚Pluriverse – A Post-Development Dictionary‘, which inspired the PLURIVERSUM event series.

Arturo Escobar dreams of a world of variety and diversity and emphasises that universities, institutions and states need to connect more with nature and local peoples in order to make a significant contribution to change. For this, however, worlds destroyed by the Western development paradigm must first be built.

 

CORE TOPICS OF HIS CONTRIBUTION: How advanced is the PLURIVERSUM really? Where has it become a reality? Where are the most promising developments? Where are the centrifugal forces?