Indigenous Resistances, Territorial Dynamics, and Socio-spatial Transformations in Napo Province, Upper Ecuadorian Amazon, 1970-2015 (Phase 1)

This project addresses the socio-spatial transformations in Napo Province, Ecuador, driven by the tensions arising from the extractive economy and development policies, which impact the ancestral territories of the Napo Runa people. The core problem lies in the conflict between two antagonistic rationalities: one viewing territory as an economic resource for capital reproduction, and another seeing it as a space for life and organic solidarity. Historically, from the colonial era through the 20th-century oil boom, capitalist interests and the imposition of accumulation models have led to territorial dispossession, ecological degradation, and deep social inequalities, evidenced by high poverty rates and deforestation. The research employs a qualitative method and dialectical analysis (macro, meso, and micro scales) to examine how the Napo Runa indigenous people articulate their territorial dynamics in resistance against globalized capital and neoliberal logics. Techniques will include interviews, participant observation, and social mapping to document territorialization and resistance strategies rooted in their modes of life, culture, and relationship with nature, aiming to understand the violent confrontation between global and local reason in the Ecuadorian Amazon.<br/><br/><b>Goal</b>: <br/>To analyze how the dynamics of capital expansion, reproduction, and accumulation influence the social production of space and the logics of domination over nature, driving territorial resistance dynamics among the Napo Runa indigenous people in the Napo province.<br/><br/><b>Research lines</b>: <br/>State, citizenship, public policies and interculturality