Between “neodevelopmentalism” and “postdevelopmentalism”: towards a theory of a dispersed knowledge economy in Ecuador

ABSTRACT

Despite the favourable context of the last decade, the transition to postextractivist economies grounded on alternative dynamics of accumulation has proved difficult in Latin America. As the case of Ecuador shows, macroeconomic imbalances and the changing global economy are threatening the scant advances accomplished and reinforcing the extractivist logic. Drawing on the postdevelopmentalist critique, this article examines Ecuador's Yachay project to explore how a new political economy of the commons based on a transition to a knowledge economy could lead to a new pattern of economic accumulation. This model should be based on local knowledge and delinked from extractivist and financial economies, to reduce Ecuador's social inequalities.

RÉSUMÉ

Malgré le contexte favorable de la dernière décennie, la transition vers des économies post-extractives fondées sur d’autres dynamiques d’accumulation s’est avérée difficile en Amérique latine. Comme le montre le cas de l’Équateur, les déséquilibres macroéconomiques et l’instabilité de l’économie mondiale menacent les maigres progrès accomplis et renforcent la logique extractiviste. S’appuyant sur la critique post-développementaliste, cet article examine le projet de Yachay en Équateur pour comprendre comment une nouvelle économie politique des biens communs fondée sur une transition vers une économie du savoir pourrait mener à un nouveau modèle d’accumulation économique. Pour réduire les inégalités sociales en Équateur, une telle approche devra s’appuyer sur le savoir local et se dissocier des économies extractive et financière.

KEYWORDS:

• Postdevelopmentalism
• neodevelopmentalism
• knowledge economy
• Ecuador
• postextractivism

Notes on contributors

Alfredo Macías Vázquez (A Coruña, 1970) is an assistant professor at the University of Leon (Spain). He held a postdoctoral research position at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), and lectured at the Carlos III University of Madrid. From different perspectives, his research focuses on economic development for which he has been granted distinctions such as the World Economy Prize José Luis Sampedro.

Pablo Alonso González (Valladolid, 1985) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Heritage Sciences, Spanish National Research Council (Incipit-CSIC), Santiago de Compostela, Spain. He holds a PhD in history from the University of León (Spain) and a PhD in archaeology at the Division of Archaeology, University of Cambridge (UK). He has published five books and articles in international journals on topics ranging from cultural heritage and archaeology to spatial planning and social theory.

ORCID

P. Alonso González http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5964-0489

Notes

1 In 2007, President Rafael Correa initiated the Yasuní-ITT Project, under which Ecuador offered a perpetual suspension of oil extraction in part of the Yasuni National Park called Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) in return for payments of US$3.6 billion from the international community.

2 The role of popular and solidarity economies in Ecuador is key. In an interview with indigenous leader Floresmilo Simbaña on 19 August 2013, he noted that indigenous communities have suffered significant reversals and repression since Rafael Correa came to power. The 2008 Constitution granted the communities the status of first instances of territorial government. Later on, Decree 16 limited their function to mere social organisations similar to NGOs. The communities are not recognised as economic actors and therefore cannot participate in the public auctions held by the state, which are dominated by large monopolistic corporations. The expansion of extractivist and financial logics to agricultural production is accelerating the destruction of forms of life and biodiversity, triggering multiple social conflicts, such as that in Esmeraldas over the destruction of the mangroves and the expansion of intensive shrimp production.

3 In an interview with scholar Arturo Villavicencio on 29 August 2013, he pointed to the consolidation of strong economic groups behind the erratic government actions. This group is constituted by technocratic sectors that pervade the own government, specific traditional businesses groups, emerging elites and some foreign partners (for the most part Chinese).

4 We thank the contributors to the seminar on the analysis of the PNBV 2013–2017, held in the Museum Mindalae, Quito, 1 August 2013.