Turistificación, renovación urbana y ecología política: contestaciones en tres ciudades de la costa ecuatoriana

Abstract

The arrival of international tourism has promoted new plans and public policies in different cities of Ecuador to adapt to this model. Consequently new environmental quality spaces have emerged within the city: beaches for leisure, mangrove areas for walks and new parks are all examples of this. The ’renovation’ prior to the arrival of tourists that is undergone by areas previously considered as undeveloped spaces inhabited by low-income families necessitates the forceful displacement of populations with different degrees of violence. To mitigate the social contradictions of this violence, decision makers enable the creation of social interest housing spaces in natural spaces beyond the city limits, thus generating a loss of centrality and hindering access to the city. The urban renewal of Esmeraldas, Portoviejo and Guayaquil ecologizes the development policies in central areas, leads to extensive and devastating peri-urbanization through the construction of social housing, and produces a new order of the spatialization of social classes in each of these cities.

Keywords

• contestation
• touristification
• ecologization
• social housing
• urban displacements