Decoding Sustainability: Indigenous Visioning of the Future and Well-being

This dissertation focuses on the endogenous conceptualization of development and sustainability emerging from settled non-native indigenous communities in the transborder region of Baja California, México. The study is comprised of interview data collected from a sample of 19 (n=19) self-identifying non-native indigenous community members and three key informants residing in various municipalities of the state. The purpose of this research is twofold, on the one hand, it aims to highlight the ways global north conceptualizations and praxis of development and sustainability in México have failed to include indigenous communities and fall short of creating feasible or appropriate practices of development and sustainability for marginalized communities. On the other, it focuses on the future perspectives of non-native indigenous communities to understand what development and sustainability look like for marginalized indigenous communities in México. The research finds that non-native indigenous communities’ settled in Baja California align more closely with the notion of Buen Vivir than development, in efforts to implement holistic approaches to progress and the conservation of their ethnic identity, culture and funds of knowledge. Additionally, the data reveals the bordering processes within ethnic and cultural scapes in Baja California’s society incentivizes merging funds of knowledge to achieve community recognition and progress. In essence, the experience and mobilization of settled non-native indigenous communities in Baja California break the perceived dichotomy between rural and urban, traditional and modern. The research also has some auxiliary findings: (1) indicating that in the state of Baja California the proliferation of development and sustainability discourses are polarized and relatively neglected in public discourses, despite its close transborder relationship with the US and growing concerns of development and sustainability in the northern nation. Second, indigenous women have been and continue to be important catalysts in community formation and representation.