Interpretive Affinities: The Constitutionalization of Rights of Nature, Pacha Mama, in Ecuador

ABSTRACT

In 2008, Ecuador adopted the world's first constitution recognizing the rights of nature. The status of nature was redefined to enable, ideally, legal interventions to protect ecosystems. This article examines the process through which rights of nature entered the Ecuadorian context by contextualizing the campaign to mobilize support for these constitutional changes launched by Fundación Pachamama, a nongovernmental organization close to indigenous and environmental movements. The collective action forms involved in the constitutionalization of rights of nature are approached as sites of knowledge production and contestation. Concepts from the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse are applied to reconstruct the interpretive repertoires of rights of nature advocates, a faction of the indigenous movement and the environmental movement during the constitutional reform. This analysis reveals that interpretive affinities or resemblances among the interpretive repertoires of rights of nature advocates and indigenous and environmental movements shaped and enabled the advocacy for rights of nature. Moreover, the article demonstrates that throughout the debates at the Constituent Assembly, the concept of rights of nature was stitched onto a discursive context imprinted with nationalist feelings underpinning a critique of neo-liberalism, and aspirations for legal progress and the decolonization of society.

KEYWORDS:

• Interpretive repertoires
• rights of nature
• sociology of knowledge approach to discourse
• collective action dynamics
• Ecuador

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful for the feedback I received throughout the preparation of this article, particularly from Reiner Keller, Peter Feindt, Michael Pregernig, Lars Borrass, and the anonymous reviewers. Thanks to Brendan Dobbie for proofreading the article. Thanks to my interview partners and to my family.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

I gratefully acknowledge the Friedrich Ebert-Stiftung and the Mühler-Fahnenberg-Stiftung for their financial support.