Making space: Community organization, agrarian change, and the politics of scale in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Ecuador's indigenous organizations have gained international prominence in recent years and have received considerable attention from academics both within and outside of Ecuador. While these analyses are clearly valuable in clarifying the role of indigenous organizations in national and international political economic relations, less attention has been paid to local-scale actors and processes. Because the lived realities of community residents are fundamentally different from those of national-level indigenous political leaders, a focus on community-scale processes is crucial to gaining a fuller understanding of indigenous politics in Ecuador. In this article, I focus on the role of community-based organizations and the multiscalar networks of which they are a part in mediating processes of regional development. I begin this discussion with a consideration of space, scale, and network formation and the role that these have played in shaping and reshaping Mondayacu. I then outline the history of the community, highlighting changes in patterns of social and spatial organization and in agricultural strategies and development projects.