Enduring Cooperation: Time, Discipline, and Minga Practice in Disaster-induced Displacement and Resettlement in the Ecuadorian Andes

This paper presents a study of an Andean form of cooperation, the minga, in a disaster-affected community and a disaster-induced resettlement—both due to volcanic eruption—in the Andean highlands of Ecuador. I explore factors affecting the continuity of minga practice post disaster and reveal some of the largely temporal tensions between wage labor and minga practice. However, I argue that much of the variation in inter-household minga participation was due to interventions by the state and NGOs and how these organizations structured the labor and temporal organization of mingas as a form of discipline. I further find that this dynamic is an extension of the historical role mingas have played in domination and local agency and highlight how this has important implications for disaster recovery at the household and community levels and for disaster relief and resettlement policy and practice.