Towards another sustainability

a dialogue between Lefebvre and the decolonial thought

Abstract

Nearly half a century after its emergence, sustainability remains alluring and controversial, despite countless criticisms. Its vagueness enables it to print an apparent neutral dimension on several issues. And, it also allows its indiscriminate appropriation for different purposes, on behalf of serving a greater good. So why reconsider it? To rediscover “the unity between language and real life, between action that changes life and knowledge”, demands “nothing less than the conquest of everyday life” (Lefebvre, 1991a), besides overcoming the man-nature rupture. Hence, this essay proceeds to a theoretical exercise of intertwining the procedural proposals of Lefebvre (1991b) and Bloch (2004) with the decolonial interculturality to rethink sustainability in an alternative transformative vein, with a critical eye.