The delevopment utopia. Contributions to think viable alternatives

Abstract

The development theories, at least the most widespread in the West, analyze and debate arduously the different ways to achieve development, but not with the same impetus the conception of it. From proposals often antagonistic, the role of institutions, the free mobility of production factors, technological capabilities, relations with the world market, among other important elements for a development process are debated. However, the environmental deterioration of the planet, which manifests itself in multiple dimensions, has led to sustainability to be a central element for new discussions.

The international community has tried to address it in recent decades without success. From the point of view of this work, this is due to the persistent pretension not to abandon the original conception of development and to try to appease its externalities by broadening the concept.

For this reason, this work aims to analyze the main problems of the hegemonic conception of development, and advance in the construction of possible alternatives for society.

For this purpose, a preliminary study about the experience of housing cooperatives registered in the Housing Self-Management Program of the City of Buenos Aires is presented, in order to verify if cooperativism can be a way of organizing work positive to promote the paradigm shift necessary to think about development in a truly sustainable way.