IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v156y2019icp387-396.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Policy-making Related Actors' Understandings About Nature-society Relationship: Beyond Modern Ontologies? The Case of Cuenca, Ecuador

Author

Listed:
  • Latorre, Sara
  • Malo-Larrea, Antonio

Abstract

Over the last five decades the discursive debate on sustainability has reached prominence as the socio-ecological impacts of the human presence on Earth have grown rapidly. Nature discourses are interwoven with those of sustainability. Within this discursive field, a diverse set of competing discourses have emerged. Among the most radical ones, the discourse of Buen Vivir has recently gained relevance in Latin America. This position aims to depart from modern western ideologies, mainly those of nature-society dualism and Eurocentric universalism. In this study, the social perspectives about nature-society of subnational policy makers and other social actors involved in territorial planning in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador are examined. Four main social discourses are identified, which instead of breaking away from the society-nature divide, embrace it. Therefore, the case of Cuenca suggests that Ecuadorian citizens (including policy-makers) are still captured by the same discourses on nature-society belonging to the discursive field of modernity and its more contemporary corollaries: development and sustainable development. Hence, relational ontologies promoted by the discourse of Buen Vivir still do not resonate among Ecuadorian policy-related actors.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:156:y:2019:i:c:p:387-396
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.10.017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800918306712
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.10.017?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rhys Jenkins, 2012. "Latin America and China—a new dependency?," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(7), pages 1337-1358.
    2. Eduardo Gudynas, 2011. "Buen Vivir: Today's tomorrow," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 54(4), pages 441-447, December.
    3. Bill Hopwood & Mary Mellor & Geoff O'Brien, 2005. "Sustainable development: mapping different approaches," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(1), pages 38-52.
    4. Kristy Faccer & Anton Nahman & Michelle Audouin, 2014. "Interpreting the green economy: Emerging discourses and their considerations for the Global South," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 642-657, September.
    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. W. Neil Adger & Tor A. Benjaminsen & Katrina Brown & Hanne Svarstad, 2001. "Advancing a Political Ecology of Global Environmental Discourses," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 32(4), pages 681-715, September.
    7. Eduardo Gudynas, 2016. "Beyond varieties of development: disputes and alternatives," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 721-732, April.
    8. Murat Arsel, 2012. "Between ‘Marx And Markets’? The State, The ‘Left Turn’ And Nature In Ecuador," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 103(2), pages 150-163, April.
    9. Carl Death, 2015. "Four discourses of the green economy in the global South," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(12), pages 2207-2224, December.
    10. Ashish Kothari & Federico Demaria & Alberto Acosta, 2014. "Buen Vivir, Degrowth and Ecological Swaraj: Alternatives to sustainable development and the Green Economy," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 57(3-4), pages 362-375, December.
    11. 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.
    12. Markus Kröger & Rickard Lalander, 2016. "Ethno-territorial rights and the resource extraction boom in Latin America: do constitutions matter?," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 682-702, April.
    13. Barry, John & Proops, John, 1999. "Seeking sustainability discourses with Q methodology," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 337-345, March.
    14. Unai Villalba, 2013. "vs Development: a paradigm shift in the Andes?," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(8), pages 1427-1442.
    15. Catherine Walsh, 2010. "Development as Buen Vivir: Institutional arrangements and (de)colonial entanglements," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 53(1), pages 15-21, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Damián Burneo & José M. Cansino & Rocio Yñiguez, 2020. "Environmental and Socioeconomic Impacts of Urban Waste Recycling as Part of Circular Economy. The Case of Cuenca (Ecuador)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-22, April.
    2. Christophe Faugère, 2021. "Connectalism: A new paradigm for human choice," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 866-889, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Beling, Adrián E. & Vanhulst, Julien & Demaria, Federico & Rabi, Violeta & Carballo, Ana E. & Pelenc, Jérôme, 2018. "Discursive Synergies for a ‘Great Transformation’ Towards Sustainability: Pragmatic Contributions to a Necessary Dialogue Between Human Development, Degrowth, and Buen Vivir," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 304-313.
    2. Roberta Masala & Salvatore Monni, 2019. "The Social Inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in Ecuador Before and During the Revolución Ciudadana," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 62(1), pages 167-177, December.
    3. Nicolò Barbieri & Lucia Dal Negro & Claudia Ghisetti & Susanna Mancinelli & Alberto Marzucchi & Massimiliano Mazzanti & Simone Tagliapietra & Roberto Zoboli, 2017. "Green-oriented Knowledge Transfers in global markets: technologies, capabilities, institutions," SEEDS Working Papers 1117, SEEDS, Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies, revised Dec 2017.
    4. Jeff Rose & Adrienne Cachelin, 2018. "Critical sustainability: incorporating critical theories into contested sustainabilities," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 8(4), pages 518-525, December.
    5. Marina Mero-Figueroa & Emilio Galdeano-Gómez & Laura Piedra-Muñoz & Moisés Obaco, 2020. "Measuring Well-Being: A Buen Vivir (Living Well) Indicator for Ecuador," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 265-287, November.
    6. 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.
    7. Joe Gerlach, 2017. "Ecuador’s experiment in living well: Sumak kawsay, Spinoza and the inadequacy of ideas," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(10), pages 2241-2260, October.
    8. Karolien van Teijlingen & Barbara Hogenboom, 2016. "Debating Alternative Development at the Mining Frontier: Buen Vivir and the Conflict around El Mirador Mine in Ecuador," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 32(4), pages 382-420, December.
    9. Murat Arsel & Aram Ziai, 2015. "Forum 2015," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 46(4), pages 833-854, July.
    10. Salvatore Monni & Luca Serafini, 2017. "A Dangerous Alliance? The Relationship Between Ecuador and China," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 60(3), pages 213-221, December.
    11. Cappelli, Federica & Caravaggio, Nicola & Vaquero-Piñeiro, Cristina, 2022. "Buen Vivir and forest conservation in Bolivia: False promises or effective change?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    12. Katia Valenzuela-Fuentes & Esteban Alarcón-Barrueto & Robinson Torres-Salinas, 2021. "From Resistance to Creation: Socio-Environmental Activism in Chile’s “Sacrifice Zones”," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-21, March.
    13. Andrea Cuesta‐Claros & Shirin Malekpour & Rob Raven & Tahl Kestin, 2022. "Understanding the roles of universities for sustainable development transformations: A framing analysis of university models," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 525-538, August.
    14. Julien Vanhulst & Adrian E. Beling, 2013. "Buen vivir: la irrupción de América Latina en el campo gravitacional del desarrollo sostenible," Revista Iberoamericana de Economía Ecológica, Red Iberoamericana de Economía Ecológica, vol. 21, pages 1-14, December.
    15. 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.
    16. Bryan W. Husted, 2021. "Buen Vivir: A Path to Reimagining Corporate Social Responsibility in Mexico after COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-16, June.
    17. Philipp Horn, 2018. "Indigenous peoples, the city and inclusive urban development policies in Latin America: Lessons from Bolivia and Ecuador," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(4), pages 483-501, July.
    18. Ravikumar, Ashwin & Chairez Uriarte, Esperanza & Lizano, Daniela & Muñoz Ledo Farré, Andrea & Montero, Mariel, 2023. "How payments for ecosystem services can undermine Indigenous institutions: The case of Peru's Ampiyacu-Apayacu watershed," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    19. 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).
    20. 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.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:156:y:2019:i:c:p:387-396. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.