Residual Urbanization and the Social Relations of Collective Struggle in an Amazonian Kichwa Commune from Ecuador

Abstract

In this article, we combine anthropological theory with an urban studies framework to analyze and understand the processes by which cities expand into rural areas and transform landscapes, ways of life, and social practices in uneven and complex ways. Looking at the Kichwa commune of Mulchi Yaku as a case study, we argue that local cultural practices not only make urbanization partial or even subordinate but also reproduce the social relations of struggle through political and social actions of defending territory, ecology, and rights to collective organization. While capitalistic urban processes penetrate indigenous territories, urbanization is transformed by the political control that people have within their territory to define indigenous life through local values and unique cultural modes of social reproduction. As such, urbanization becomes incomplete or “residual,” and communal forms of social reproduction predominate. Our analysis employs a variety of methods that include survey data, geographical information systems, satellite image data, and fine-grained ethnographic research to understand how local people adapt and transform the processes of urban expansion within their territories.