Hacia la construcción de métricas alternativas. Estudio cualitativo sobre percepciones subjetivas del Buen Vivir en Cuenca y Nabón (Ecuador)

Abstract

This article aims to describe the methodological design of a qualitative study on the population settled in a Southern Ecuador territory. It is a research project implementing a qualitative methodology with a view to obtaining information on subjective perceptions about Living Well and its dimensions, and also about the contexts for social participation and everyday life which are representative of rural and urban areas in Ecuador. Our qualitative research is part of the research proposal about alternative development measurements being conducted at the University of Cuenca’s PyDLOS research unit. The proposed methodological strategy presents two ways of producing social discourses about Living Well. With regard to a rural area (Nabon), a series of group techniques based on participation dynamics (workshops and group interviews) are applied to natural and homogeneous groups whose unit is the community, due to the great singularity of the settlements in the territory. On the other hand, for the urban area (Nabon), two techniques are employed: a) the focus group technique in certain social sectors, thus structuring several non-natural homogeneous groups on certain social divides which have been detected, and b) the in-depth interview technique to determine the corporate discourse on everyday city life through representatives of civic organizations.