¿Es posible un patrimonio cultural para el Sumak Kawsay?: un largo camino por recorrer

Abstract

From the perspective of cultural heritage we will review the path taken by heritage policies and the modes it acquired in Coastal Ecuador. We will discuss how far the current political project centered around the concept of “Sumak Kawsay” or “Buen Vivir” (Good Living), as a counter hegemonic punch directed at development policies, has the actual potential of turning the willingness to promote heritage through tourism, to improve the local economy. Pushing tourism and heritage as a part of the productive matrix to achieve “Buen Vivir”, will depend on the abandonment of the antiquarian/collectionism paradigm, a professional training, participative social thinking, and the renewal of all the areas of bureaucratic and administrative affairs.