Cultural management in Ecuador: Genealogy and power relations within the constitution of a field

This chapter analyses the arrival of cultural management in Ecuador, which is closely interlinked with the Spanish geopolitical strategy towards Latin America. Exactly this strategy undermines bottom-up cultural processes, as well as epistemologies, and knowledge originating in the social margins typical for the Ecuadorian cultural scene. The author observes the failure of the Ecuadorian political system to address cultural rights beyond folklorist rhetoric and problematises the processes of monocultural and nation-based identity building. From a decolonial perspective, she argues for placing Andean epistemologies at the centre of the discipline and prioritising forms of community organisations.