Critical Contributions of Buen Vivir (Sumak Kawsay) as a Latin American Alternative to Global Sustainability

This article critically examines the role of Buen Vivir (Sumak Kawsay) as a Latin American alternative to development and to contemporary sustainability debates, clearly distinguishing this paradigm from Western approaches to sustainable development rooted in economic growth and the exploitation of nature. Guided by the question What are the contributions of Buen Vivir (Sumak Kawsay) as a Latin American alternative to the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainability?, this study conducts a systematic review of scientific publications indexed in Web of Science and Scopus between 2018 and 2024. Following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, a final sample of 69 documents was analyzed. The findings indicate that Buen Vivir is not only a cultural and philosophical framework but also a political and practical model articulated through education, territorial governance, solidarity and community-based economies, and the protection of nature as a subject of rights. The study concludes that Buen Vivir constitutes a decolonial, epistemic, and biocentric proposal in which the social, economic, and environmental dimensions function as complementary and interdependent. From this perspective, Buen Vivir contributes to the construction of sustainable communities from a Latin American standpoint and offers alternative pathways for rethinking global sustainability debates.