Environmentalist demands in the indigenous movement in Ecuador

What is it about?

This text is about how environmentalist and ecologist ideas and demands entered the discourse of the indigenous movement in Ecuador and how they developed. In order to understand that, the influence of external actors and the shifting importance of internal groups is taken into account. Environmentalist ideas proved to facilitate alliances with external actors and inclusion into global discourses. The introduction of Buen Vivir/Sumak Kawsay appears thus as a radicalization of a certain understanding predominant in the movement itself - and not something that depends on the indigenous cultures.

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Why is it important?

In this text, I introduce the distinction between internal and external framing. With this, I can distinguish concepts used for internal mobilization or disputes within a movement from concepts used to communicate main demands to external actors. This is especially relevant for social movements of marginalized people, such as the indigenous movements. The result is that external framing is a simplifying translation of internal framing that can work with strategic essentialism and naturalizations.

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