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Paper short abstract

This presentation examines Transformation Initiatives in the rural Andes as locally grounded critiques of both capitalist development and grand green transition narratives, showing how economías propias negotiate welfarist governance while exposing the limits of universal just transition frameworks.

Paper long abstract

We examine the role of welfarism in shaping economías propias—locally embedded economic practices that coexist with and respond to the limits of capitalist economies, while remaining attuned to local ecologies and socio-environmental relations—in rural Andean contexts. Grounded in Critical Development Studies and ethnographic research, the presentation approaches these practices as Transformation Initiatives that critically engage with dominant development paradigms, including both mainstream capitalist models and universalized narratives of green and just transitions.

Rather than treating Transformation Initiatives as autonomous or coherent alternatives, we conceptualize them as plural, context-dependent formations embedded in, and constrained by, welfarist governance regimes. Welfarism is understood as a historically rooted mechanism of power based on external aid and state intervention, articulated through development and sustainability discourses and implemented through sector-specific public policies.

Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in rural Peru between 2018 and 2023, the analysis shows that welfarist dynamics have been internalized across most identified initiatives. Rather than constituting a clear rupture with existing orders, Transformation Initiatives emerge as hybrid and contested spaces that combine prefigurative aspirations with inherited governance logics, generating both creative potential and internal tension. By foregrounding these frictions, the presentation contributes to debates on contested governance and socio-ecological transitions. It highlights how locally grounded practices simultaneously critique and complicate hegemonic narratives of development and green and just transition, revealing the limits of universal transition frameworks when confronted with situated rural realities.