Abstract

In this chapter we are rethinking sustainability in a non-extractivist perspective. Whilst notions of sustainable development and green growth tend to reproduce dynamics of extractivism and mastery in human-nature relations, we analyze how practices based on care and reciprocity are pivotal to enable sustainable relations. To do so we build on a sociology of absence and emergence perspective studying marginalized practices of regenerative farmers in Denmark and Portugal. We analyze practices of care and reciprocity, how practitioners are organizing to enable these practices, and discuss changes in concepts needed to enable such practices. By doing so we draw attention to the need of redefining human-nature relations as a key challenge and starting point for understanding what sustainable economies might be.