Utopian urbanism, dystopian realities. An (im)possible ethnography in Yachay, the city of knowledge

Described as the most important project in Ecuador’s history Yachay, meaning knowledge, in Kichwa, is an urban development initiative conceived as the bridge towards a society free from the dependent exploitation of nature. Embracing the current wave of optimism that surrounds open source platforms of information sharing, Yachay has been projected as new ‘knowledge haven’. This is the utopia of a new city which converts a society based on an extractive economy to one based on knowledge. The risk of pursuing this dream is ignoring the existing economic and political conditions but also the hopes to build a "new country" that brought the so-called Citizen Revolution. We wanted to think, reflect and learn about one of the most thrilling urban plans to have emerged in Latin America. This paper reports on frustrated attempts to conduct this research and interprets their eloquent silences and reluctance.