This is an interim team 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.
Arturo Guerrero Osorio: Since 1995 he has been living and collaborating with communities and grassroots organizations in Oaxaca, Mexico, accompanying community radio stations and self-learning processes. He participates in the Universidad de la Tierra of Oaxaca and the Universidad Autónoma Comunal of Oaxaca.
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.
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.
Franco Augusto: Social activist, unprofessionalized intellectual, 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.
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.
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.
Nishara Rajah Naidoo: Born in South Africa, documentalist and film director, focused on Social and Solidarity Economy.
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 Society for Alternative Learning and Transformation (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: Activist-researcher based in Pune, India and member of Kalpavriksh. Her research is focussed on documenting, analysing, and networking alternatives to development. She helps in coordinating the Vikalp Sangam (alternative confluence) process in India.
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.
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 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..
We appreciate and recognize the following former members of the core team that have offered their time and energy to our joint adventure: Patricia Botero, Injairu Kulundu, 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.