Oil, Revolution, and Indigenous Citizenship in Ecuadorian Amazonia

Abstract

Latin American Political Economy publishes new, relevant, and empiricallygrounded scholarship that deepens our understanding of contemporary Latin American political economy and contributes to the formulation and evaluation of new theories that are both context-sensitive and subject to broader comparisons. Inspired by the need to provide new analytical perspectives for understanding the massive social, political, and economic transformations underway in Latin America, the series is directed at researchers and practitioners interested in resurrecting political economy as a primary research area in the developing world. In thematic terms, the series seeks to promote vital debate on the interactions between economic, political, and social processes; it is especially concerned with how fi ndings may further our understanding of development models, the socio-political institutions that sustain them, and the practical problems they confront. In methodological terms, the series showcases cross-disciplinary research that is empirically rich and sensitive to context and that leads to new forms of description, concept formation, causal inference, and theoretical innovation. The series editors welcome submissions that address patterns of democratic politics, dependency and development, state formation and the rule of law, inequality and identity, and global linkages. The series editors and advisory board members belong to

In the Spirit of Oil: Unintended Flows and Leaky Lives in Northeastern Ecuador

“…Whereas oil companies have gone to some lengths to convince the public that negative impacts can be spatially contained (cf. Hindery 2013)-a public argument that in Ecuador has been particularly prevalent in connection to oil exploitation in the Yasuní and in areas inhabited by indigenous groups considered to be in voluntary isolation through an argument about the use of tecnología de punta 5 (Lu et al 2017;Rival 2016)the concept of wehüe highlights oil's transgressive and transformative potential. Oil exploitation involves flows of oil and production water that sometimes leak into waterways, development of infrastructure and movement of people and workers, flows of goods and money-with potential desirable or undesirable effects-that inevitably leak from the so-called extractive enclaves.…”

Tactics of dispossession: Access, power, and subjectivity at the extractive frontier

“…In Peru, local and regional governments where mining firms operate receive 50% of their income taxes, with conditions that these funds be used for development projects (Arellano‐Yanguas, ). Similar schemes are in place in Ghana (Tsuma, ) and Papua New Guinea (Ballard & Banks, ); and in Bolivia and Ecuador, hydrocarbon rents finance social programmes (Bebbington, ; Lu et al, ). Such redistributive policies can promote a populist resource politics in which extractive industry is painted as a mechanism for social uplift (Ballard & Banks, ).…”

“…We are also keenly aware that subject formation at the extractive frontier occurs in relation to multiple contextual factors like existing social divisions (racial, ethnic, gendered, generational, etc.) and within histories of previous encounters with resource economies (Bebbington et al, ; Frederiksen, ; Himley, ; Lu et al, ). Nonetheless, we suggest that socio‐political life in these areas often becomes dominated by the extractive enterprise to the extent that “extractive subjects” come into being.…”

“… Exceptions include Gustafson (), Lu et al (), and Valdivia (), with the first of these using the term “extractive subject” similarly to how we do here, but in the specific context of natural gas development in Bolivia. We also note that studies of other resource sectors, such as logging, have addressed questions of subjectivity (e.g., Peluso & Vandergeest, ). …”

Tackling Complex Inequalities and Ecuador's Buen Vivir: Leaving No‐one Behind and Equality in Diversity

“…To respond to uneven development, public policies need to involve all policy sectors and regions, while all levels of government are to implement equality within diversity. Introducing new planning regions, state BV reaffirmed existing political‐administrative units in COOTAD legislation on territory, autonomy and decentralisation (Lu, Valdivia and Silva, ), and used statistical data to pinpoint the micro‐geographies of service provision and livelihood improvements.…”