Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 11-1-2019 A Genealogy of Neoliberal and Anti-neoliberal Resilience in the Ecuadorian Pacific coast Vanessa Leon Leon Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Development Studies Commons, Human Geography Commons, Nature and Society Relations Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Leon Leon, Vanessa, "A Genealogy of Neoliberal and Anti-neoliberal Resilience in the Ecuadorian Pacific coast" (2019). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4345. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/4345 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida A GENEALOGY OF NEOLIBERAL AND ANTI-NEOLIBERAL RESILIENCE IN THE ECUADORIAN PACIFIC COAST A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in GLOBAL AND SOCIOCULTURAL STUDIES by Vanessa León León 2019 To: Dean John F. Stack, Jr. Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs This dissertation, written by Vanessa León León, and entitled A Genealogy of Neoliberal and Anti-neoliberal Resilience in the Ecuadorian Pacific Coast, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this dissertation and recommend that it be approved. _______________________________________ Juliet EraZo _______________________________________ Jose Miguel Cruz _______________________________________ Dennis Wiedman,Co-Major Professor _______________________________________ Kevin Grove,Co-Major Professor Date of Defense: November 1, 2019 The dissertation of Vanessa León León is approved. _______________________________________ Dean John F. Stack, Jr. Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs _______________________________________ Andrés G. Gil Vice President for Research and Economic Development and Dean of the University Graduate School Florida International University, 2019 ii © Copyright 2019 by Vanessa León León All rights reserved. iii DEDICATION Dedicated to my beloved children Nicole and Emilio. In memory of my dad, Dr. Carlos León. And my endless gratitude to my husband Roger. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The accomplishment of dissertation writing was made possible thanks to the award of a two-semester Florida International University Dissertation Year Fellowship. The Tinker Field Research Grant, to which I am also thankful, provided me funds for my pre-dissertation research in the year 2015. My research also benefitted from the generous financial support of Ecuadorian National Secretary of Science of Technology, Ecuadorian institution that awarded me with a doctoral scholarship and the financial support of Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL), my hometown university. I have been inspired by the work and expertise of my Major Professor, Kevin Grove, who believed in my research project and has been most helpful in educating me as to the complex analysis of resilience and biopolitics. The anthropological approach of this work has benefited from discussions with Dennis Wiedman. I appreciate his steady support since the first course in grad-school. I am also very grateful for the support and expertise of my dissertation committee members, Juliet EraZo, and Jose Miguel Cruz. My fieldwork benefited from numerous persons to whom I express my gratefulness. A special thanks to Maria Isabel Cando and Yorgi RamíreZ, visionaries of tourism development in Santa Elena. They introduced me to everyday life at Libertador Bolívar and provided me accommodation during my fieldwork. To Luis Coronado, a community leader, an artisan, and a writer, whose extreme bond to communal values and territory reveal what means to be a comunero. My friends Oswaldo Chancay and Milton Cordova, thanks for those conversations we had at the beach while you kindly provided me mouthwatering meals and delicious natural drinks. To ASOMAR members and other community leaders, Wilson Barzola, Carlos and Mónica Floreano, Liliam Floreano, v Alexa SuareZ, Cecibel Tomalá, Juan Reyes, my gratitude for the days amidst the sea, the sand, and the AtraveZado river mouth. Much appreciation to ESPOL President Cecilia Paredes Verduga, my friend, whose visits during the initial years of my grad-school largely contributed to keep me moving forward in this effort. This dissertation reunites several ESPOL professors whose careers are also connected to Santa Elena and the national administration. Enrique SancheZ, my dearest friend and mentor, my infinite gratitude. To Victor Osorio, thanks for sincerely share your experiences during the extended time he chaired CRMP. Much appreciation to Maria del Pilar Cornejo, who provided me valuable information about risk management in Ecuador and introduced me to several key informants at the Risk Management office. To Daniel Garces for elaborating the maps included in this work. My gratitude to my mom, Maruja, who sheltered me each time I came back to Ecuador for doing fieldwork. I also want to thank my supportive friends in Miami, Carmen Helena, Cynthia, Jeanine, Paola, for the timely help they provided me (including dinners, coffees, flowers, parrilladas). To my beloved family, I will never be able to give you back the time you waited for me while I was writing this dissertation. My dear daughter Nicole, a reader of my first essays, thanks for being so supportive. To my son Emilio, my companion, who took such tiresome travels during my fieldwork. And thank you, Roger David, my beloved husband, for motivating me to undertake this challenge and supporting me during my grad-school years. Thank you, God, for inspiring me to write for and from my country Ecuador. vi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION A GENEALOGY OF NEOLIBERAL AND ANTI-NEOLIBERAL RESILIENCE IN THE ECUADORIAN PACIFIC COAST by Vanessa León León Florida International University, 2019 Miami, Florida Professor Kevin Grove, Co-Major Professor Professor Dennis Wiedman, Co-Major Professor Resilience appears to be everywhere, morphing and seducing global discourses, national governmental practices, and scholarship. Inasmuch as hegemonic discourses and national governments promote resilience through both disaster reduction and sustainable development policies, critical resilience scholars have emphasiZed resilience as a neoliberal security technique. By reinforcing resilience as a governmental practice embedded in neoliberal rationale, theory and practice are neglecting other areas to contextualiZe resilience. My dissertation traces a genealogy of neoliberal and anti- neoliberal State interventions underpinned by resilience thinking, organiZing coastal rural lives in Ecuador. No matter the Ecuadorian governments’ rationale, both genuflected to global hegemonic discourses on resilience that justify government intervention to secure the population’s future. My analysis also reveals that both governmental rationales promoting resilience implemented similar techniques: legal framework adaptations, decentraliZing processes, technocratic planning, and participatory management. vii After I captured resilience practices morphing through neoliberal and anti- neoliberal governance, a comprehensive ethnographic account also discloses unintended outcomes threatening the beach ecosystem. Ecosystems are a critical foundation of the socio-ecological relationship; however, profound changes in the beach ecosystem are now a consequence of the neoliberal and anti-neoliberal governmental emphasis on protecting the population and tourist infrastructure. More importantly, this research untangles resilience precepts underlying the neoliberal and anti-neoliberal problematiZation of nature to justify governmental intervention in coastal management. My particular critique of resilience does not replicate academic emphasis on catastrophic events. Hegemonic frameworks underrepresent the slow, local, and small emergencies by emphasiZing acute and sudden events. However, resilience theory admits that continuous processes can also change the nature of a complex system. Thus, I focus on slow emergencies, those not regular, not acute emergencies, which also demand collective political or ethical response. My dissertation captures the constructive role of slow emergencies, frequently missed in disaster resilience analysis, to argue that resilience is a political process among nature, population, and governmental security techniques. The politics of resilience captures the social and cultural dimension of nature; then, nature emerges as an object of political struggles within complex, socio-ecological indeterminacy. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Neoliberal and anti-neoliberal resilience in the complex relationship among nature, development, and security ........................................................................................... 1 Life amidst tides and waves. Introduction ................................................................. 1 Theoretical framework: neoliberal and anti-neoliberal resilience ............................. 7 Methods: From a genealogy of resilience toward the politics of resilience ............