Residential Tourism and Rural Persistence: Economies of Resistance in Peripheral Contexts
Authors
-
Maria de los Angeles Cuenca-Rosillo
Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5663-2889
-
Antonio di Campli
Politecnico di Torino
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6582-8130
Download
Abstract
Residential tourism in Malacatos, Ecuador, drives territorial transformations that deepen socio-spatial and economic inequalities in this peripheral rural context. This study examines how structures of opportunity and conditions of social disadvantage shape dynamics of peripheralization and local resistance. Using a mixed-methods approach, changes in land use and spatial patterns are analyzed within the theoretical framework of regional opportunity structures. Results show that residential tourism functionally specializes in certain areas, positioning Malacatos as a peripheral territory relative to Vilcabamba, the center of tourism investment. Despite these inequalities, forms of resistance led by women emerge, sustaining agro-food networks connected to local and international markets. This multidimensional process highlights the interaction between structural inequalities and local agency in reconfiguring rural territories. The study provides a theoretical perspective on peripheralization as a dynamic phenomenon and emphasizes the need for public policies that integrate socio-economic sustainability and territorial equity, strengthening local economic circuits and offering alternatives to the dominant tourism model.
Keywords:
residential tourism , rural peripheralization , opportunity structures , socio-spatial inequalities , economies of resistance , Malacatos (Ecuador)References
Basuras en sitios turísticos de Vilcabamba y Malacatos marcó el feriado. (2021, 5 noviembre). Diario Crónica. https://cronica.com.ec/2021/11/05/basuras-en-sitios-turisticos-de-vilcabamba-y-malacatos-marco-el-feriado/
Bebbington, A. (2000). Reencountering development: Livelihood transitions and place transformations in the Andes. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 90(3), 495–520. https://doi.org/10.1111/0004-5608.00206
Beetz, S., Huning, S., y Plieninger, T. (2008). Landscapes of peripherization in north-eastern germany's countryside: new challenges for planning theory and practice. International Planning Studies, 13(4), 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563470802518909
Bernard, J. (2018). Rural quality of life – poverty, satisfaction and opportunity deprivation in different types of rural territories. European Countryside, 10(2), 191–209. https://doi.org/10.2478/euco-2018-0012
Bernard, J. (2019). Where have all the rural poor gone? explaining the rural–urban poverty gap in European countries. Sociologia Ruralis, 59(3), 369–392. https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12235
Bernard, J., Decker, A., Vojtíšková, K. A., y Mikešová, R. (2016). Living and dealing with limited opportunities: Social disadvantage and coping strategies in rural peripheries. Sociální studia / Social Studies, 13(2), 29–53. https://doi.org/10.5817/soc2016-2-29
Bernard, J. y Šafr, J. (2019). The other disadvantaged neighbourhood: Income related effects of living in rural peripheries. Housing Studies, 34(6), 946–973. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2018.1504008
Bernard, J., Steinführer, A., Klärner, A., y Keim-Klärner, S. (2023). Regional opportunity structures: A research agenda to link spatial and social inequalities in rural areas. Progress in Human Geography, 47(1), 103–123. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325221139980
Clancy, M. (2001). Exporting paradise: Tourism and development in Mexico. Emerald Group Publishing.
Cupples, J. (2004). Rural development in El Hatillo, Nicaragua: Gender, neoliberalism and environmental risk. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 25(3), 343–357. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0129-7619.2004.00190.x
de la Cadena, M. (2015). Earth beings: Ecologies of practice across Andean worlds. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11smtkx
de Renzis, A., Faggian, A., y Urso, G. (2022). Distant but vibrant places: Local determinants of adaptability to peripherality. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 113(5), 483–501. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12535
Demajorovic, J., Aledo Tur, A., Landi, B., & Mantovani Kondo, A. L. (2011). Complejos turísticos residenciales: Análisis del crecimiento del turismo residencial en el Mediterráneo español y en el litoral nordestino (Brasil) y su impacto socioambiental. Estudios y Perspectivas en Turismo, 20(4), 772–796.
Espinosa Ortiz, F., Vieyra, A., y Garibay Orozco, C. (2015). Narrativas sobre el lugar. Habitar una vivienda de interés social en la periferia urbana. Revista INVI, 30(84), 59–86. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-83582015000200003
Fischer-Tahir, A. y Naumann, M. (2013). Introduction. En A. Fischer-Tahir y M. Naumann (Eds.), Peripheralization: The making of spatial dependencies and social injustice (pp. 9–25). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-19018-1_1
Gascón, J. (2015). Residential tourism and depeasantisation in the Ecuadorian Andes. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 43(4), 939–956. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2015.1052964
Hidalgo, R. D., Salazar, A. B., Lazcano, R. A., Roa, F. P., Álvarez, L. C., y Calderón, M. F. (2005). Transformaciones socioterritoriales asociadas a proyectos residenciales de condominios en comunas de la periferia del área metropolitana de Santiago. Revista INVI, 20(54), 104–133. https://doi.org/10.5354/0718-8358.2005.62174
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos. (2001). Base de datos-censo de población y vivienda 2001. https://www.ecuadorencifras.gob.ec/base-de-datos-censo-de-poblacion-y-vivienda-2001/
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos. (2010). Base de datos-censo de población y vivienda 2010. https://www.ecuadorencifras.gob.ec/base-de-datos-censo-de-poblacion-y-vivienda-2010/
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos. (2022). Censo de población y vivienda 2022: Base de datos nacional. https://anda.inec.gob.ec/anda/index.php/catalog/1085/datafile/F4/V119
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos. (2024). Estadística de información ambiental económica en gobiernos autónomos descentralizados municipales. https://www.ecuadorencifras.gob.ec/documentos/web-inec/Encuestas_Ambientales/Municipios/2023/Agua_potable_alcantarillado/Presentacion_APA_2023_VF_3.pdf
Janoschka, M. y Haas, H. (Eds.). (2013). Contested spatialities, lifestyle migration and residential tourism. Routledge.
Jurdao, F. (1979). España en venta: compra de suelos por extranjeros y colonización de campesinos en la Costa del Sol. Ayuso.
Kloster, S., & Cunha, L. A. G. (2014). Desenvolvimento territorial e turismo rural: As relações possíveis. Desenvolvimento em Questão, 12(27), 66–94. https://doi.org/10.21527/2237-6453.2014.27.66-94
Kühn, M. (2015). Peripheralization: Theoretical concepts explaining socio-spatial inequalities. European Planning Studies, 23(2), 367–378. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2013.862518
Kühn, M., Bernt, M., y Colini, L. (2017). Power, politics and peripheralization: Two Eastern German cities. European Urban and Regional Studies, 24(3), 258–273. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776416637207
Leibert, T. y Golinski, S. (2017). Peripheralisation: The missing link in dealing with demographic change? Comparative Population Studies, 41(3-4). https://doi.org/10.12765/cpos-2017-02
Mariani, M. A. P., Cardozo, B. D. A., Arruda, D. O., y Silva, M. B. O. d. (2020). O turismo de base comunitária no contexto de um empreendimento econômico solidário no Pantanal de Mato Grosso do Sul. REDES: Revista do Desenvolvimento Regional, 25(3), 2407–2431. https://doi.org/10.17058/redes.v25i0.14878
Mazón, T., Huete, R., y Mantecón, A. (Eds.). (2009). Turismo, urbanización y estilos de vida. Las nuevas formas de movilidad residencial. Icaria.
Meisch, L. A. (2002). Andean entrepreneurs: Otavalo merchants and musicians in the global arena. University of Texas Press.
Midgley, J., Hodge, I., y Monk, S. (2003). Patterns and concentrations of disadvantage in England: A rural-urban perspective. Urban Studies, 40(8), 1427–1454. https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098032000094379
Municipio de Loja. (2023). PUGS plan de uso y gestión de suelo. https://www.loja.gob.ec/files/image/LOTAIP/pugs-2023-2033.pdf
Parroquias surorientales, “ahogadas” con basura. (2023, 4 mayo). Diario Crónica. https://cronica.com.ec/2023/05/04/parroquias-surorientales-ahogadas-con-basura/
Parroquias surorientales con botaderos de basura abarrotados. (2024, 21 marzo). Diario Crónica. https://cronica.com.ec/2024/03/21/parroquias-surorientales-con-botaderos-de-basura-abarrotados/
Petrović, A., Manley, D., y Van Ham, M. (2020). Freedom from the tyranny of neighbourhood: Rethinking sociospatial context effects. Progress in Human Geography, 44(6), 1103–1123. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132519868767
Plan de desarrollo y ordenamiento territorial parroquial Malacatos. PDOT. Administración 2023–2027. (s.f.) https://malacatos.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/PDYOT-2023-2027.pdf
Radel, C., Schmook, B., y Chowdhury, R. R. (2010). Agricultural livelihood transition in the southern Yucatán region: Diverging paths and their accompanying land changes. Regional Environmental Change, 10(3), 205–218. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-010-0113-9
Ruiz-Ballesteros, E. y Hernández-Ramírez, M. (2010). Tourism that empowers? Commodification and appropriation in Ecuador’s turismo comunitario. Critique of Anthropology, 30(2), 201–229. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X09345426
Sansolo, D. G. (2003). Turismo e sustentabilidade na Amazônia: Um novo conteúdo territorial e a experiência no município de Silves, Amazonas. PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural, 1(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.25145/j.pasos.2003.01.004
Sassen, S. (2014). Expulsions: Brutality and complexity in the global economy. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt6wpqz2
Tickamyer, A. R. y Duncan, C. M. (1990). Poverty and opportunity structure in rural America. Annual Review of Sociology, 16(1), 67–86. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.16.080190.000435
Van Ham, M. y Manley, D. (2012). Neighborhood effects research at a crossroads: Ten challenges for future research. Environment and Planning A, 44(12), 2787–2793. https://doi.org/10.1068/a45439
Vega Briceño, G. C. (2023). Índice de empoderamiento femenino en la agricultura para la parroquia Malacatos [tesis de pregrado]. Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja. Repositorio Institucional RIUTPL. http://dspace.utpl.edu.ec/handle/123456789/39087
Zorn, E. y Farthing, L. C. (2007). Communitarian tourism hosts and mediators in Peru. Annals of Tourism Research, 34(3), 673-689. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2007.02.002
Twitter
Facebook
