Between “neodevelopmentalism” and “postdevelopmentalism”: towards a theory of a dispersed knowledge economy in Ecuador

Resumen

Despite the favourable context of the last decade, the transition to postextractivist economies grounded on alternative dynamics of accumulation has proved difficult in Latin America. As the case of Ecuador shows, macroeconomic imbalances and the changing global economy are threatening the scant advances accomplished and reinforcing the extractivist logic. Drawing on the postdevelopmentalist critique, this article examines Ecuador's Yachay project to explore how a new political economy of the commons based on a transition to a knowledge economy could lead to a new pattern of economic accumulation. This model should be based on local knowledge and delinked from extractivist and financial economies, to reduce Ecuador's social inequalities.