Territorial Dialogues

This book explores how popular social organizations in Cuenca, Ecuador, construct and contest meanings about nature and territory from their own experiences, memories, and community practices. Grounded in a critical and situated approach, the text recognizes these organizations not only as managers or intermediaries of public policy but also as producers of territorial knowledge and discourse. Through a combination of archaeological-genealogical analysis, institutional document review, interviews, and field observation, the study identifies eleven organizational forms and four major narrative blocks—technocratic, conservationist, developmentalist, and systemic—that shape territorial debates in the city.

The book shows how these organizations inhabit, imagine, and defend their territories amid tensions with technocratic urbanism, extractive development, and persistent inequalities in access to services, mobility, and technology. It also highlights the role of popular territorialities in defending water sources, sustaining community autonomy, and preserving social memory. Across three chapters, the work examines territorial distributions, dialogues among actors, and the results of field research, offering a complex and deeply human reading of Cuenca’s territory.

Ultimately, the book invites readers to rethink the city from the ground up, acknowledging the capacity of communities to challenge dominant visions of urban development and to imagine alternative ways of inhabiting and governing with territorial justice.