Facilitation Team

Facilitation Team

This is an interim team, formed by 20 persons currently, that is currently holding the GTAGlobal Tapestry of Alternatives process to enable the weaving of alternatives. The team as a collective or as individuals doesn't hold any centralised power.


Alex Jensen: He has worked in the US and India, where he coordinates Local Futures’ Ladakh Project. He has worked with cultural affirmation and hhe active in environmental health/anti-waste and degrowth movements.

Ana Cecilia Dinerstein: Born in Buenos Aires and based in England, United Kingdom, where she works as a professor of Sociology. She is a political sociologist, a philosopher and a feminist and decolonial critical theorist. She has created, and is working on what she calls critical research on the global politics of hope.

Arturo Escobar: Is a Colombian activist-researcher, working on territorial struggles against extractivism, postdevelopment, regional transitions, and ontological design. He taught anthropology and political ecology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill until 2018.

Ashish Kothari: Founder-member of Indian environmental group Kalpavriksh. He has (co)authored or (co)edited over 30 books, and helps coordinate the Vikalp Sangam and Radical Ecological Democracy processes.

Carlos Tornel: is a Mexican researcher and activist. His work focuses on the pluriversal possibilities emerging from other energy relationalities and the struggles against the so-called “energy transition” and the expansion of extractivism/green capitalism.

Christine Dann: is a New Zealand writer and eco-gardener who has been active in feminist, peace and green movements since the 1970s. This has led to her developing an 'alternatives' world view which is now informed by degrowth, decolonial and indigenous perspectives.

Eliana N’Zualo: is a feminist organizer and storyteller based in Maputo, Mozambique but creating impact all over the continent. Her writing has been published in Mozambique, Brazil and South Africa. She is moved by her deep commitment to African Feminist Principles and Practices.

Franco Augusto: Social activist, unprofessionalized intellectual, deschooled father, co-creator many of open collaborative projects and documentalist of alternatives around the planet, collaborating with processes of social transformation for more than 20 years now.

Lebohang Liepollo Pheko: Activist scholar, public intellectual, Decolonial Afrikan(ist) feminist currently exploring alternatives to GDP, ‘post covid’ economics using an intersectional lens. Worked and lived across several countries building solidarity and making good trouble. Exploring healing poetry in my work.

Lina Álvarez Villarreal: is a Colombian activist researcher. She is interested in unveiling the practices/knowledges that give existence to a politics of an inhabited earth, and in contributing to weave a dialogue between those geo-historical practices. She is currently teaching political theory at the University of Los Andes in Bogotá.

Madhuresh Kumar: is an Indian activist-researcher currently based in France and been part of anti-globalisation and climate justice struggles. He writes regularly on people’s resistance, movement dynamics, and development policy matters. Earlier, he was NAPM India's (National Alliance of People’s Movements) national coordinator till 2018 and an elected national convener till 2021.

Marina Sitrin: is a mother, militant, dreamer, teacher and student. She writes about and participates in societies in movement. Based in the US where she now teaches sociology at Binghamton University, she has lived in Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe, where she continues collaborations.

Marta Musić: A decolonial, feminist activist-researcher. Her work as a transnational movement organizer mainly consists of building bridges between struggles, movements and initiatives and creating networks of solidarity.

Mauricio del Villar Zamacona: son, partner, father, and friend. During the last 20 years he has shared life with different communities of Mexico, learning and living the daily life through planting, preparing food, participating in celebrations, and strengthening social economy practices.

Mugdha Trifaley: member of Kalpavriksh, Vikalp Sangam and the Global TapestryThe weaving of networks of Alternatives of AlternativesAre activities and initiatives, concepts, worldviews, or action proposals by collectives, groups, organizations, communities, or social movements challenging and replacing the dominant system that perpetuates inequality, exploitation, and unsustainabiity. In the GTA we focus primarily on what we call "radical or transformative alternatives", which we define as initiatives that are attempting to break with the dominant system and take paths towards direct and radical forms of political and economic democracy, localised self-reliance, social justice and equity, cultural and knowledge diversity, and ecological resilience. Their locus is neither the State nor the capitalist economy. They are advancing in the process of dismantling most forms of hierarchies, assuming the principles of sufficiency, autonomy, non-violence, justice and equality, solidarity, and the caring of life and the Earth. They do this in an integral way, not limited to a single aspect of life. Although such initiatives may have some kind of link with capitalist markets and the State, they prioritize their autonomy to avoid significant dependency on them and tend to reduce, as much as possible, any relationship with them. Facilitation team. She helps support processes such as PeDAGoG, the Pluriversal Alternatives Working group, and also supports the Periodical process.

Raquel Castillo: is an activist, a lifelong learner and an ardent believer in genuine solidarity. She works with the Movement for Alternatives and Solidarity in Southeast Asia, advocating for alternative regionalism grounded on people’s struggles and alternative practices, and is Lead Convenor of Solidarity for People’s Education and Lifelong Learning in the Philippines, which challenges the neoliberal concept of human capital development and its political economy. She has inadvertently found herself cast in coalition building roles time and again, though perhaps she would prefer to delve more into art and the culture of solidarity and resistance.

Simon Ndonco Mitambo: Born and raised in Tharaka indigenous community, Simon is an Earth Jurisprudence Practitioner and an initiated teacher of the ancient wisdom of Tharaka people. He is founder of SALT and a nature-based school in Kenya; The Kithino Learning Centre; a centre for stimulating, awakening and regenerating bio-cultural diversity. He is currently the Regional Programs Coordinator for African Biodiversity Network (ABN).

Shrishtee Bajpai: Shrishtee is a writer, researcher, activist working at the intersections of environmental justice, more-than human governance, worldviews and systemic transformations. She is part of environment action group-Kalpavriksh (India), Vikalp Sangam (Alternatives Confluence) serves on the executive committee of Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature.

Vasna Ramasar: Academic and activist from South Africa living and working in Sweden. She has always been involved in environmental justice, politics of environment and alternatives to development.

Xochitl Leyva Solano: Activist researcher. She works to create other possible worlds hand in hand with women, young people of the peoples in resistance, both indigenous and Afro-descendant, as well as those of gender diversity.

Ancestral members in spirit

Gustavo Esteva (1936-2022): A grassroots activist and a public intellectual. He participated in many local, national and international organizations, networks and movements. He was one of the founders and initiators of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives.

Former members and contributors

We appreciate and recognize the following former members of the Facilitation Team that have offered their time and energy to our joint adventure: Ananeza Aban, Rafael Vicente Dimalanta, Arturo Guerrero Osorio, Patricia Botero, Injairu Kulundu, Nishara Rajah Naidoo, Enric Duran, Coumba Toure, Valiana Aguilar, Ana Cecilia Galindo Diego, Sujatha Padmanabhan, Milind Wani and Pablo Campoy. We also acknowledge Daniela Anaya, who helped to create the first version of this website.