Intercultural economic solidarity circuits: The case of Utopia Basket and participative consumer profile in Ecuador's outskirts

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze the role of consumers of Utopia Basket in the organization of intercultural economic solidarity circuits. Therefore, I aim to consider the experience of Utopia Basket in Ecuador. To gather the data, I conducted ethnographic methods, such as observant participation and in-depth interviews between 2014 and 2016. I argue that Utopia Basket consumers have a different profile to other initiatives of agroecological product consumption – mainly targeted at the middle class – and that they are a group of consumers initially from a neighborhood on the outskirts of Riobamba, a town in Ecuador, with ties and links of proximity related to Ecclesial Base Communities (CEBs). They have undergone communitarian formation processes on agroecological food as a right, not a privilege. In addition, they advocate and exercise the need for reconnecting with indigenous-peasant practices and communities. I found that Utopia Basket consumers have played the role of articulating and driving the formation of intercultural solidarity economic circuits.