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The commodification of nature and socio-environmental resistance in Ecuador: An inventory of accumulation by dispossession cases, 1980–2013

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  • Latorre, Sara
  • Farrell, Katharine N.
  • Martínez-Alier, Joan

Abstract

This article aims to advance understanding of the relationship between social metabolism, the commodification of nature, local regime changes, and patterns of resistance to accumulation by environmental dispossession during the most recent phase of global capitalism. Ecuador is a resource-rich periphery country that has moved after 2007 from a neoliberal to a post-neoliberal policy regime. By analyzing 64 socio-environmental resistance cases in the period 1980–2013, we focus on the continuities and changes in the relationship between environmental dispossession and resistance under the two regimes. We find that while resistance to agri-food projects has diminished, having enjoyed some success under during the post-neoliberal regime, resistance to infrastructure and mineral extraction projects has remained steady, with the impacts from environmental dispossession remaining much like those observed before 2007. At the same time, major social investments financed through natural resource extraction and export, combined with the introduction of constraints on the media and public assembly, have created a political climate in which the resistance observed during the neo-liberal period is now a socially deviant behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Latorre, Sara & Farrell, Katharine N. & Martínez-Alier, Joan, 2015. "The commodification of nature and socio-environmental resistance in Ecuador: An inventory of accumulation by dispossession cases, 1980–2013," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 58-69.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:116:y:2015:i:c:p:58-69
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.04.016
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    Cited by:

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    2. Mairon G. Bastos Lima, 2021. "Corporate Power in the Bioeconomy Transition: The Policies and Politics of Conservative Ecological Modernization in Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-20, June.
    3. Samaniego, Pablo & Vallejo, María Cristina & Martínez-Alier, Joan, 2017. "Commercial and biophysical deficits in South America, 1990–2013," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 62-73.
    4. Balaine, Lorraine & Gallai, Nicola & Del Corso, Jean-Pierre & Kephaliacos, Charilaos, 2020. "Trading off environmental goods for compensations: Insights from traditional and deliberative valuation methods in the Ecuadorian Amazon," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    5. Villalba-Eguiluz, C. Unai & Etxano, Iker, 2017. "Buen Vivir vs Development (II): The Limits of (Neo-)Extractivism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 1-11.
    6. Latorre, Sara & Malo-Larrea, Antonio, 2019. "Policy-making Related Actors' Understandings About Nature-society Relationship: Beyond Modern Ontologies? The Case of Cuenca, Ecuador," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 387-396.
    7. Pérez-Rincón, Mario & Vargas-Morales, Julieth & Martinez-Alier, Joan, 2019. "Mapping and Analyzing Ecological Distribution Conflicts in Andean Countries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 80-91.
    8. Daniel Coq-Huelva & Bolier Torres-Navarrete & Carlos Bueno-Suárez, 2018. "Indigenous worldviews and Western conventions: Sumak Kawsay and cocoa production in Ecuadorian Amazonia," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(1), pages 163-179, March.
    9. Unai Villalba-Eguiluz & Asier Arcos-Alonso & Juan Carlos Pérez de Mendiguren & Leticia Urretabizkaia, 2020. "Social and Solidarity Economy in Ecuador: Fostering an Alternative Development Model?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-17, August.

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