KALLARI: Entrepreneurship for community and nature - an indigenous experience from the Amazon rain forest

Abstract

In 2018, we celebrated the conference “Employability, Social Entrepreneurship, and Territorial Development” in Melilla, organized by the School of Cooperative Studies of the Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Granada at its campus in this wonderful autonomous city of Spain, located in North Africa. This city is uniquely rich, having been a place where three cultures— Jewish, Christian, and Muslim—have coexisted for centuries. Among the numerous presentations and papers submitted to the Scientific Committee, Carmen Amelia CORAL-GUERRERO, from SEK University-Ecuador, presented a paper titled “Economic Dimensions of Sumak Kawsay,” which initially seemed difficult to comprehend, yet its abstract invited careful reading and listening. The presentation was part of a broader study that constituted her doctoral thesis titled “Happiness and Good Living (Sumak Kawsay) in Ecuador,” which was later solidified in an article published in REVESCO. Revista de Estudios Cooperativos, issue number 129, under the title “Indigenous Entrepreneurship: An Economic Dimension of Sumak Kawsay?” Looking back, although at that time we could not foresee the challenges that the near future would bring, including a health, economic, and social crisis that still persists, we can now interpret it as a message of hope.