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Assessment of local adaptive capacities in the context of local politics after the 2016 Ecuadorian earthquake

Abstract:

Focusing on four municipalities in two provinces (Manabí and Esmeraldas), this article discusses the comparative findings resulting from the first long-term assessment of the decelerated socioeconomic recovery process on the Ecuadorian coast after the earthquake of April 2016. To do so, we draw on the framework of collective adaptive capacities developed by Ross (2014), repeated field stays between 2017 and 2018, and aerial photographic documentation. By putting emphasis on both the national context of post-neoliberal Buen Vivir disaster management as well as the subtleties and vital role of local politics in the recovery process, we find serious ecological, institutional, infrastructural and economic shortcomings at the municipal level. By typically fostering disaster capitalism and securitization in favor of cantonal seats, and to the detriment of parishes, the recovery process revealed a tendency to deepen already existing vulnerabilities and inequalities in the region instead of mitigating them.