Agrarian extractivism and land struggles in Guayas province, Ecuador: a feminist political ecology analysis
| dc.contributor.author | Landivar, Natalia | |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Li, Fabiana (Anthropology) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Thorpe, Jocelyn (Women's and Gender Studies) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Levy, Charmain (Université du Québec en Outaouais) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Davidson-Hunt, Iain | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Desmarais, Annette | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-01-11T21:12:25Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-01-11T21:12:25Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2022-12-13 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2022-12-05 | |
| dc.date.submitted | 2022-12-13T18:08:25Z | en_US |
| dc.degree.discipline | Natural Resources Institute | en_US |
| dc.degree.level | Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Consistent with the constitutional principle of Buen Vivir, the Ecuadorian state implemented the redistributive program Plan Tierras in October 2009. Plan Tierras promoted the creation of relatively more gender-equal peasant associations through which beneficiaries also became linked to PAIS Alliance’s new extractivist development approach. This thesis provides a gender-based study on how the social, economic and ecological transformations triggered by the PAIS Alliance agricultural model enters into conflict with the rights of peasants to maintain their land and live in a healthy environment. I focus on peasant associations that bought the seized rural estates, Hacienda La Indiana and Hacienda Las Mercedes in Guayas province to become sugar cane and rice producers, respectively. The primary methods used were semi-structured interviews with seventy-one research participants, as well as observing participation complemented by literature review, three focus groups, and six follow-up online interviews. This research points to the paradox of a distributive land policy and associative model linked to an extractivist agricultural model. I found that peasant associations are put into oppressive relations with agrarian elites that control the agricultural markets through ever-lower prices for agricultural products and increasing dependency on technological inputs, equipment, and machinery whose prices have been steadily increasing. My findings highlight the differentiated suffering experienced by women as they bear the hidden physical and emotional burden due to the intersection of the oppressive capitalist system and the continuation of hierarchical gendered roles of women in agriculture. Furthermore, I draw out the link between a crisis of social reproduction and the devaluation of the environmental health of the land as relates to the emotional wellbeing of women who sustain social reproduction. Finally, I found that the historic politics of pervasive patronage, along with corruption and violence, hinders women’s on-the-ground food sovereignty practices and peasant autonomous mobilization that would be needed to challenge the extractivist rural development approach of the state. Based on these findings, I conclude that the PAIS Alliance programme has reproduced hierarchic ethics relations in the region with the greatest beneficiaries of this new extractivist dynamic in Guayas province being white-mestizos agrarian elites. | en_US |
| dc.description.note | February 2023 | en_US |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (advisor funding), Canada Research Chair Program (advisor funding), Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth and Resources (dean funding). | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1993/37091 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
| dc.rights | open access | en_US |
| dc.subject | agrarian extractivsm | en_US |
| dc.subject | Coastal Ecuador | en_US |
| dc.subject | gender-equal peasant associations | en_US |
| dc.subject | rights of peasants to a healthy land | en_US |
| dc.subject | crisis of social reproduction and devaluation of environmental health of land | en_US |
| dc.title | Agrarian extractivism and land struggles in Guayas province, Ecuador: a feminist political ecology analysis | en_US |
| dc.type | doctoral thesis | en_US |
| local.subject.manitoba | no | en_US |
| oaire.awardNumber | IDRC Nr. 108838-022 | en_US |
| oaire.awardTitle | University of Manitoba Graduate Fellowship (UMGSF), University of Manitoba International Graduate Student Scholarship, IDRC Doctoral Research Award | en_US |
| oaire.awardURI | https://umanitoba.ca/graduate-studies/funding-awards-and-financial-aid/university-manitoba-graduate-fellowship-umgf, https://umanitoba.ca/faculties/graduate_studies/funding/108.htm, https://idrc.ca/en/project/idrc-doctoral-research-awards-2022-2024 | en_US |
| project.funder.identifier | U of M: https://doi.org/10.13039/100010318 | en_US |
| project.funder.name | University of Manitoba (U of M) and International Development Research Center (IDRC) | en_US |