Andres Leon

Costa Rica is the largest exporter of fresh pineapple in the world, with more than half of its production located in the border region with Nicaragua. Based on ethnographic research carried out in two Costa Rican communities located near the border, this articles presents two main arguments: (1) that the border, and the way in which it produces a vulnerable and exploitable labor force, has been crucial for Costa Rica’s rise as the largest fresh pineapple exporter in the world; (2) that the lens of social reproduction provides us with an important perspective from which to think about the limits, both political and geographical, of the plantation.

This chapter intends to reflect on the engineering practice and education from a Global South’s perspective, its relationships with grassroots social processes, and the transitions towards the Amerindian Buen Vivir, as opposed to the hegemonic colonial model of engineering from the North and its imperative of satisfying the market’s needs. This way, after a quick presentation of some aspects of both hegemonic and alternative/counter-hegemonic engineering practice and education panoramas (introduction), such panoramas are described in the decolonial theory’s terms (Sect. 23.2), and Buen Vivir’s central elements are sketched (Sect. 23.3). Then, two case studies from Colombia are described (Sect. 23.4), the specificities of this engineering training and practice are highlighted and systematized/theorized, and some of their disruptive potentialities are singled out (Sect. 23.5). In the final section, two main challenges of decolonial or counter-hegemonic engineering practice and education in general, and for the Buen Vivir, in particular, are briefly introduced: institutionalization and evaluation.