Gustavo Esteva is a grassroots activist and deprofessionalized intellectual. For the last 20 years, he associated his life with Indian groups, peasants and urban marginals, after being a public officer and a university professor. He is part of many independent organizations and networks, which he has contributed to create, in Mexico and other countries, to foster social, economic, technological and ecological alternatives.
He is the author of a dozen books - some of them translated to English and German - and more than 500 essays. Among recent books: Grassroots Postmodernism - Remaking the Soil of Culture, with M.S.Prakash, London: Zed Books, 1998. He was National Prize-winner of Political Economics (1978), President of the 5th World Congress on Rural Sociology (1980), Member of the Board and Interim Chairman of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (1980-1984), President of the Mexican Society for Planning and Vice-president of the Interamerican Society for Planning.
He has been professor and lecturer in many universities, in Mexico and elsewhere, as well as columnist and editor of supplements in newspapers and journals in Mexico.
At present, he is a columnist in Reforma, publishes regularly in different journals, and works with Indian groups and NGOs, including the Zapatista Army for National Liberation. He lives in a small Indian village in Oaxaca, Mexico, and is currently working on alternatives to the economy and initiatives beyond education, human rights and democracy.
Oct 7 2000: People Regenerating Places