Show notes
In this episode, I interview Gustavo Esteva, deprofessionalized intellectual and founder of Universidad de la Tierra (University of the Earth)—an alliance of collectivities engaged in learning through action based in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Here, we discuss:
(1) His decades-long journey from elite levels of government and the corporate world to revolutionary organizing at the grassroots
(2) The complex process of recovering his indigenous self and sense of the good life
(3) How he has created space for horizontal learning and continued sharing of indigenous knowledges in Oaxaca
Key Themes:
- How so-called needs are produced through dispossession and necessitate the introduction of “professionals” to address “needs”
- How the emergence of universalized “needs” such as indoor plumbing necessitates oppressive social relations
- Gustavo’s changing relationship to his work as an agent of development through corporate roles at IBM and Procter & Gamble
- Gustavo’s involvement in radical struggles and attempts to reconcile critique with governmental leadership
- His collaboration with social critic Ivan Illich and his emergence as a leading thinker within postdevelopment discourse
- How early experiences with his Zapotec grandmother and the writings of Ivan Illich prepared him for Zapatismo
- The post-patriarchal, non-hierarchical cultural possibilities Gustavo observed within Zapatista society
- How members of this community are “healing from health” by recovering and sharing deprofessionalized healing knowledge
- How Gustavo founded Unitierra when an investigation raised public awareness about the hegemonic purpose of schools in his region
- How Unitierra values self-directed learning and a plurality of ways of knowing including indigenous practices
Resources:
Gustavo Esteva, “Desprofesionalizarnos” / “Deprofessionalize Ourselves”
Gustavo Esteva and Madhu Suri Prakash, Grassroots Post-modernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures
Orlando Fals Borda, Una Sociologia Sentipensante para America Latina
Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society
Ivan Illich, Energy and Inequity
Ivan Illich, Gender
Ivan Illich, Tools for Conviviality
Selected Books by Gustavo Esteva:
