A Global Flourishing Lexicon, Starting with Latin America Book in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • It seems that flourishing is an aspiration of all human beings. However, when approaching the regional, cultural, and linguistic peculiarities that define what makes people thrive and become the best versions of themselves, considerable differences are found. The concept of "human flourishing" in Latin America is not commonly used. Even so, there is a tradition that goes back to the native peoples and that has to do with promoting everything that makes the relationships of communities prosperous as well as humans' relationship with and care of nature. Since there is no common expression equivalent to "human flourishing" in Latin America, given the cultural and language differences this does not mean that it is not possible to trace some shared ideas specific to the region that are close to the meanings of "human flourishing" in Western cultures. Concepts such as sumak kawsay, or "good living" (good life) show the importance of taking care of both the quality of relationships between community members and the relationship with the natural environment, with Mother Earth. Thus, in the Latin American region, the idea of flourishing is studied beyond the idea of subjective well-being, and, as shown by some research in the region, it is more related to the social dimension and to the concept of capabilities. The chapter concludes with an argument for building ideas of what makes people thrive by incorporating concepts generated across cultures and languages and creating a global lexicon for human flourishing. © Oxford University Press 2025. All rights reserved.

publication date

  • August 25, 2025