Rural Communities in Ecuador: Relationships between Culture, Nature, Disasters, Tourism, and Cultural Heritage (Phase 3)

This research project addresses the gap between governmental policies promoting tourism and culture, such as the "All you need is Ecuador" campaign, and the actual outcomes for rural host communities. Institutional lag is identified, affecting environmental preservation, cultural management, and community tourism development, potentially leading to a "bubble tourism" that ignores local populations. The investigation focuses on understanding culture as a dynamic framework of meanings and struggles, analyzing how social norms are impacted by the popular management of culture, heritage, and the relationship with nature. Utilizing an ethnographic methodology in the Esmeraldas province (Portete and Mompiche areas), the study will employ open-ended interviews, participant observation, and focus groups to reconstruct the living memory and perspectives of local actors. The analysis will rely on thick description, following Geertz, to unravel the structures of meaning behind community practices, contrasting empirical findings with anthropological theories on culture, heritage, disasters, and community tourism. The final output will be an academic interpretation of local interpretations.<br/><br/><b>Goal</b>: <br/>To investigate and analyze, from an anthropological perspective, the struggles over meaning surrounding the practices and visions of two rural communities regarding tourism, nature, and culture. The goal is to incorporate anthropological criteria to clarify the problems arising from the diversity of views and practices in these areas.<br/><br/><b>Research lines</b>: <br/>Heritage and culture