RURAL GENTRIFICATION, SYMBOLIC CLEANSING, AND TOURISTIFICATION IN AN ECUADORIAN MARITORY
GENTRIFICACIÓN RURAL, LIMPIEZA SIMBÓLICA Y TURISTIFICACIÓN EN UN MARITORIO ECUATORIANO
DOI: https://doi.org/1/10.4067/s0717-73562026000100509
María Amparo Eguiguren Eguiguren
and Daniela Soledad Ochoa Pilco
Key Words: Maritory, rural gentrification, symbolic cleansing, symbolic gentrification and touristification.
Abstract
This article examines the reconfiguration of the meanings and uses of a maritory in the province of Esmeraldas, Ecuador, in light of productive and cultural transformations that have occurred in subsistence practices based on agriculture and the extraction of marine and mangrove resources. In this context, a maritory is understood as a territory shaped by influence of the sea, both in ecological terms and in human activities, and which is subject to changing historical relationships between different social groups and the marine-coastal ecosystem. The growing influx of tourism investment—from international corporations and national entrepreneurs—has widened inequalities in access to natural resources and capital, resulting in uneven power struggles among actors. To understand better these conflictive relationships between social actors and the ecosystem, the study draws on ethnographic research conducted between 2016 and 2024, as well as on theoretical frameworks such as rural gentrification, symbolic cleansing, and touristification. In short, this maritory emerges as a gentrified rural space, characterized by symbolic cleansing, touristification, and the imposition of new lifestyles and spatial practices by tourism companies and non-local resident.
