Ecological Natives and Indigenous Class Warriors: The Indigenous Movement in Ecuador and the Uprisings of 2019 and 2022

The indigenous movement in Ecuador was one of the most influential social movements in Latin America during the 1990s. It had a high mobilization capability, formed broad alliances, and had a clear discourse. However, since the early 2000s, it has been in crisis due to problems with national leadership. This only changed in October 2019 when a national uprising led to the movement’s reappearance in political attention, the reconstruction of alliances, and a renovation of its discourse. A national uprising in June 2022 further strengthened this development, producing a struggle around neoliberalism.

With this book, Philipp Altmann helps readers understand the evolution of the Indigenous movement in Ecuador. In his chronological presentation, he emphasizes the position and perspectives of the activists and organizations of the indigenous movement and delves into the movement’s history and the exploration of its crises and its uprisings.

Philipp Altmann (ORCiD 0000-0002-5036-2988), studied in sociology, cultural anthropology and Spanish philology at the University of Trier and the Autonomous University Madrid (2001-2007). He finished his doctorate in sociology at the Free University of Berlin in 2013 with a work on the decolonial aspects of the discourse of the indigenous movement in Ecuador. Since March 2015, he is Profesor Titular for Sociological Theory at the Universidad Central del Ecuador, with focus on how ideas spread, the intersection of discourse analysis, history of concepts, and sociology of knowledge. Presently, he is studying the diffusion of the political concepts of the indigenous movement in Ecuador and the development of Ecuadorian sociology in relation to global sociology and other national/local traditions. Research interests are: indigenous and social movements, decoloniality, identity, social exclusion, systems theory, political sociology, sociology of science.