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The Ecuadorian state frames its development interventions in infrastructure and human capital as advances in buen vivir or ‘good living’. This paper reports ethnographic research that draws attention to everyday appropriations of state discourses on buen vivir in the Amazon and Andes. Non‐state actors in marginalised communities often use state discourses strategically in engagements and negotiations with state actors. We argue that uses of official versions of buen vivir discourse often reflect such strategic appropriations of state idioms, rather than subjective commitment to state‐led development and official notions of buen vivir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]