interfase urbano-rural en ecuador hacia un desarrollo territorial ...

2.2 A set of indispensable endogenous factors for local development
The interrelationship between global opportunities and restrictions –exogenous dynamics- and local
capabilities and advantages –endogenous dynamics- is a decisive aspect for understanding local
development, or its absence. In this sense, it is important to analyze dimensions such as regional
production chains, the quality of institutions in the formulation and management of public policies, the
social fabric, identity and culture (Boisier, 1998a). These important factors in the development of local
societies have enabled us to identify the specific capabilities of each of the RUCs studied to manage
responses to the challenges of globalization, thus reducing the vulnerability to which these centres of
regional attraction are exposed in relation to external patterns.
Cayambe, Naranjal and Pastaza represent different moments of this link between the internal and
external environments.
2.2.1 Regional production chains
In the first place, it is important to identify the capability, at local level, to generate production chains
and reinvestment processes that make it possible to reduce the fragility of the economic expansion due
to the international market. In this sense, the three cases studied have interesting particularities.
Focusing on Cayambe, this regional urban centre, as we said, is characterized by a very dynamic
economic activity linked mainly to the flower plantations. Thus, agriculture is strengthened as the
main source of work, with more than half of the current economically active population (EAP)
working in a modern, highly technologized form of primary production, with strong exogenous
investments related to the export of flowers. This growth has radically changed the economic and
social structure of the region. The weight of the new agricultural activities is expressed in the urban
social structure, where one third of the resident working population is employed in agriculture.
Similarly, it is in the city of Cayambe that the transformation linked to trade, which appears to be the
most dynamic sector compared with the stagnation and decline of industry and services, is most
noticeable. At the same time, we observe the well-known phenomenon of growth of “informal”
activities, whose dynamism parallels the rise of social precarization.
The case of Cayambe confirms once again that the impact of economic growth, without suitable
regulation mechanisms, does not translate into a benefit for the whole of society. The flower growers
in Cayambe do not generate direct structured chain links with the whole of the local economy. This
could be partly explained by the fact that capital comes from Quito or Colombia and that there have
been no reinvestments at local level after the expansion and even less since the crisis of 1998.
However, the will exists to promote processes of local development, through initiatives coming both
from municipal institutions and civil society. Of the cantons studied, it is in Cayambe where the
capacities of local actors to generate proposals for the whole of society have been most developed,
even if they have been developed unequally, as they basically come from the indigenous movement.
Naranjal also exhibits an important economic dynamic, linked in this case to banana production, which
is predominant in the area –and has articulated the local economy and society for decades- and is
directly linked to export and, therefore, to the world market. During the last decade, agriculture
continued to be the main source of attraction of manpower (around 60% of the EAP). However, unlike
Cayambe, a significant part of the capital has a local anchorage, which means that its economic
presence translates into a social hegemony that is superimposed on the local political structures. But
the economic surpluses are not reinvested locally.
At urban level, the contraction of the State machine has led to a decrease in the number of workers in
community service activities. This drop has been offset by commercial activities. However, the most
significant features are, firstly, the fact that one third of the workers who live in the city work in
agricultural activities, secondly, the dramatic increase of “undeclared” activities (which have jumped
from 2 to 10%), a demonstration of the trend towards a general precarization of employment and,
lastly, a reduction of self-employment and a parallel increase of wage employment in the private
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