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What happens when the architectures of extraction, once intimately constituted by capitalist and racial forms of exclusion, begin to rot? Focusing on a Bolivian tin mine, this paper examines the social effects of deteriorating "architectures of extraction," a category that includes both aboveground infrastructures and belowground networks of tunnels and scaffolding. First, I argue that when Llallagua's extractive architecture was built, it helped shore up a connection between tin mining, working-class identity, and revolutionary nationalism – which in turn became bound up with mestizaje, an ideology of racial and cultural whitening. Second, I argue that the ruination of this extractive architecture has had ambivalent implications for the racial politics of contemporary small-scale mining operations that continue to operate inside the mountain. On the one hand, the rotting structures reinforce regional racial hierarchies in a variety of ways, but on the other hand, the slow degradation of the physical structures has made the corresponding social structures more porous, if not fully permeable, to members of regional Indigenous ayllus. While access to the financial benefits of mining is far from unambiguously liberatory, this paper nevertheless suggests that the political possibilities contained within the ruins of extractive architectures are not uniformly adverse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With its proclamation of universal suffrage in 1952, Bolivia fits into Samuel Huntington's "second short wave of democratization" (1943–1963). In 1952, all women and men gained the right to vote, marking a significant step towards democratization by including previously excluded groups. Literate women had already obtained municipal voting rights in 1945 under a populist government aiming for broader political participation. However, women first voted in 1947, after the oligarchy overthrew this government in 1946 and sought to regain power by repressing the opposition parties and previously marginalized sectors. Unexpectedly, it supported women's suffrage for national elections by the late 1940s. What prompted various political parties to support women's suffrage in the late 1940s? This paper explores how women in Bolivia gained the right to vote and what role the feminist movement and power struggles played in obtaining women's suffrage. Beginning in the 1920s with a study of the emergence of the feminist movement and its evolution during the decades of the 1930s (the Chaco War) and 1940s, the paper culminates with an assessment of feminism's impact on public opinion as well as the importance of the growing politicization of women in the 1940s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stand-alone price analysis of illicit opium and coca does not explain why smallholders turn to illicit crops for coping and survival. Under conditions of precarity, illicit crop markets can stimulate productivity. They generate returns that can tame crises and relieve pressures. To smallholders facing marginalisation, violence, and climate change – growing opium and coca, despite their illegality, can reduce or spread risks and provide more predictability. Thus, rather than fix on the 'invisible hand' of price theory, the focus should be on the 'visible hand' of political entrepreneurship, interdependent relationships, and the metrics of precarity. To do this, this paper retrospectively compares illicit crop prices before and after certain historical moments in Bolivia, Myanmar, Colombia, and Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bolivia's first Indigenous president, Evo Morales (2006–2019) of the Movement toward Socialism (MAS) party, made Indigenous rights the cornerstone of his administration. In his first official act, Morales disbanded the Ministry of Indigenous and First Peoples Affairs under the logic that Indigenous peoples' demands are to be incorporated into all facets of government, rather than addressed separately. In light of this dynamic, the paper takes up the questions: Does Indigenous mainstreaming work to advance the representation of Indigenous peoples' interests? And, what are the conditions under which mechanisms of Indigenous representation emerge, succeed, or fail? The paper maps out the institutional architecture that has emerged in Bolivia to advance Indigenous peoples' descriptive and substantive representation. The study finds that for Indigenous mainstreaming to be effective, it must be accompanied by multiple mechanisms of interest representation, such as reserved seats, executive appointments, and the direct election of Indigenous representatives, to account for the diversity of Indigenous peoples' representational needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Latin America — the region with the biggest tropical forest on the planet and the largest potential for agricultural expansion — food security and food sovereignty are two competing approaches to food policies. Drawing on decolonial approaches to political geography, this paper provides a comparative analysis of food policies in the four countries (Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia) that make up the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), a supranational organisation that has enacted a regional food policy aimed at reconciling neoliberal and social orientations of its country-members. The paper contributes to the literature that highlights the multi-scalar nature of food security and food sovereignty by exploring the contentious building of food institutions from the grassroots to national and supranational scales in the Andean region. It also contributes to the critiques that highlight the limits to decolonization by explaining how – apart from hydrocarbon and mining dependence – food policies also express the permanence of coloniality in plurinational states. The paper argues that Andean supranational policies are apparent efforts to balance and harmonize the different interests at stake when actually reinforce a neocolonial sovereign state power that deepens the scalar tensions by intensifying the extractive transnational agriculture over pro-indigenous agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes livelihood diversification and social differentiation in the Bolivian highlands. It argues that peasants' increased dependence on mining is undermining the material basis of their farming practices and leading to social differentiation which threaten their autonomy, control over their resource base and, ultimately, farming futures. While pluriactivity is necessary to sustain life on the farm, it also actively depletes it. The multiple identities and complex class positions of these smallholders have hindered forms of organized resistance. Mining is part of agrarian life and these dynamics are important to understand rural livelihoods and agrarian change in the contemporary context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropologists have critically examined a range of reforms from education and land to finance and health. Yet the predominant way of looking at reforms has been through a lens focused on neoliberal governance. For example, prior studies of health reforms focus on insurance, financing, and access to care. Yet, seeing reform in this way fails to attend to other types of cultural work at play when calling a policy or law a reform. In this paper, we draw on ethnographic research on health policy reforms in Israel and Bolivia to examine the concept of reform and the work it does within national movements. We argue that while the language of reform often signals change or novelty, reforms also carry forward historical continuities and reifications of the past. By delving into the past and its relationship with ongoing health reforms, we attend to how reforms can reinforce and maintain health inequities in some cases, while creating a national language for new possibilities in others. Reform, as we will discuss in this paper, is not only about political ideology, neoliberal governance, or on-the-ground policy implementation, but centrally it is about representations of aspirations, and about crafting relationships between past, present, and future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information asymmetries and limited skills are two main factors affecting job seekers' chances to access quality jobs in developing countries. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a program combining job intermediation and wage subsidy in Bolivia, a country with one of the highest levels of informality in Latin-America. Using administrative and survey data, we find that the program substantially increases employment and formality. These effects are heterogeneous across different subsamples of interest. Our results suggest that Active Labor Market Policies might be an effective solution for improving access to quality jobs in the context of high informality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 2016 Habitat III conference, the global urban policy framework based on the New Urban Agenda and the related Sustainable Development Goals (SDG11) has been adopted in an increasing number of countries worldwide. Through a comparative methodological approach, the paper analyses the making process of the Ecuadorian National Urban Agenda and the Bolivian National Urban Policy from the perspective of the involved international agents, to reflect upon the role of the time dimension in the localisation of global urban policy and its relationship with the policy transfer space. In doing so, the analysis sheds light on the role played by sequence and timing in influencing the outcomes of the localisation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the imposition of caps on microcredit lending rates through credit policies for productive sectors. This financial inclusion intervention provides a unique quasi-experiment, allowing to estimate its effect following a difference-in-differences analysis. Our results suggest that the imposition of interest rate ceilings negatively affected the portfolio balance of new microcredits and loans to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) granted by Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs). The balance of the microcredit and SME loans portfolio granted by MFIs, relative to the company portfolio granted by banks, decreased by 26.1% for an average MFI for the period 2011-2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the evolving cyber politics landscape in Latin American countries from the perspective of the region's Indigenous social movements. It examines the types of regulations and tools that Latin American governments have adopted to assert their control over the online world, how these measures constitute barriers for Indigenous organizations, and how social media and other ICTs are shifting the balance of power between Indigenous movements and the state. Based on three years of qualitative fieldwork in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile, this paper argues that the ability of Indigenous groups to use ICTs for political engagement is threatened by restrictive communications policies, libel laws, authoritarian national security legislation, and government use of surveillance technologies. Indigenous claims challenge established political and economic structures of power, but communities lack the resources to ensure their own information security, to detect online attacks and to defend themselves against authoritarian practices. As a result, Indigenous organizations are faced with censorship, self-censorship, and accusations of defamation and terrorism. This limits the potential of ICTs to serve as instruments of democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compared the use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) against the use of standard paper questionnaires for collecting survey data. The evaluation consisted of qualitative approaches to document the process of introducing PDAs. Fieldwork was carried out during June-July 2005 at 12 sites in Bolivia. Data collectors reacted positively to the use of the PDAs and noted the advantages and disadvantages of paper and PDA data collection. A number of difficulties encountered in the use of PDA technology serve as a warning for investigators planning its adoption. Problems included incompatible data files (which impeded the ability to interpret data), an inadequate back-up protocol, and lack of a good 'fit' between the technology and the study. Ensuring the existence of a back-end database, developing an appropriate and adequate back-up protocol, and assessing whether a technology 'fits' the project are important factors in weighing the decision to collect data using PDAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IN 2001, a young Argentinian reporter organised a meeting with a union official named Casimiro Huanca, friend and advisor to Bolivian guerrilla leader Evo Morales. It would take the reporter 24 hours to get to their meeting place in Cochabamba, Central Bolivia, through the dangerous depths of the jungle. Reporting for Clarín, the largest newspaper in Buenos Aires at the time, reporter Pablo Calvi did not make it to the meet in Cochabamba. Huanca did and was gunned down on the spot. Calvi did not write the story in 2001. And for 16 years, barely spoke of it, haunted by the belief that he was responsible for this man's death. In 2016, he returned to Bolivia to find answers, publishing them in online magazine Guernica. Through narrative inquiry and textual analysis, this paper unpacks the story's trauma frame through characterisation and structure. It focuses on the subtle use of the first person, arguing that it is an exemplar of narrative placement. This paper discusses the setting of the piece of writing as a slice of trauma memoir in postgraduate and undergraduate creative nonfiction classes, in a bid to demonstrate judicious use of first-person narration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significance of integrated water resources management (IWRM) is broadly recognized, but practical implementation methods are little known. This paper proposes a Practical IWRM approach that has the potential to accelerate consensus-building and problem-solving relating to water resources based on the formation of an aligned perception of natural and human-made water resource systems among stakeholders, and the establishment of a properly functioning multi-stakeholder partnership (MSP). This approach was applied in four countries – Sudan, Bolivia, Indonesia and Iran – where it has worked well in different contexts, and can be an effective methodology usable elsewhere in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How social protection programmes affect work choices is a question that has been at the centre of labour economics research for decades. More recently, a scant literature has focused on the effects of social protection on work choices and informal employment in the context of low and middle-income countries. This paper contributes to this scant literature by examining the effect of Bolivia's Renta Dignidad, a universal non-contributory old age pension that covers all Bolivians aged 60 years and older. We exploit the discontinuity introduced by the age eligibility criteria of the programme and the timing of the announcement of the programme, to implement a difference-in-differences approach. Overall, we find that Renta Dignidad has no detrimental effects on labour force participation and the intensity of labor of adult members of beneficiary households. Instead, we find that the pension reduces the intensity of work for girls aged 12–18 living with a pensioner, which indicates a positive effect on intra-household time allocation. In terms of work choices, Renta Dignidad reduces the probability of holding a salaried job in rural areas by about 8 percentage points, which denotes a shift from formal to informal employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the election of Evo Morales and his party Movement to Socialism (MAS) in 2005, Bolivia has become the only country in Latin America to have an indigenous party in power. However, it is misleading to take the MAS government as representing all of Bolivia's ethnic diversity. Its indigenous population can be classified into peoples from the Andean highlands and from the Amazonian lowlands. Research has treated the indigenous population as uniform or focused on the Andean peoples and on parties rather than voters. This paper aims to differentiate this picture by showing that variances between highland and lowland indigenous peoples started with the appearance of Homeland's Consciousness (CONDEPA) and have increased since MAS came to power. While the highland indigenous peoples have preferred left political parties, parties with pro-indigenous agendas or which used indigenous symbolism, the lowland peoples have tended to support centre-right parties. The paper attempts to explain these differences in the voting behaviour of Bolivia's indigenous peoples. Ethnic voting is analysed in the time span from 1985 until 2014 within a mixed-methods design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Bolivia, as in many cities of the Global South, rapid and unplanned urban growth expanded widely into peri-urban areas with high levels of poverty and vulnerability. However, the public administration do not acknowledge the peri-urban areas in policies and planning. Moreover, the peri-urban complex realities exceeded local planners capacity to cope with them. This paper examines the challenges that peri-urban areas pose to urban planning in Sacaba, Bolivia. The methodology includes questionnaire surveys, interviews and workshops with actors in peri-urban areas. Findings reveal that peri-urban areas appeal to be formally recognized in urban planning at the same time that traditional urban planning need to readjust its approach to fit the reality of the cities in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the concept of plurinationality relates to the notion of Bolivia as a formación abigarrada (motley, disjointed social formation), and how that social form corresponds with the political form of the state. René Zavaleta Mercado, one of Bolivia's most influential intellectual figures, is best known for his conceptualisation of the country as a formación abigarrada, which underscores the coexistence of multiple modes of production and historical temporalities in the same geographic space. Zavaleta used this concept to examine Bolivian society as a set of historical structural articulations that develop over time in relation to different state forms. I argue that whereas the disjointedness of Bolivia's social formation was always seen as a negative condition for Zavaleta, plurinationality has been enunciated as a positive possibility, a horizon beyond the socio-political formation of the liberal nation state. Thus, while we cannot properly theorise plurinationality without the analytic of lo abigarrado, as a condition of possibility plurinationality seeks to institutionalise in political form that which for Zavaleta was a negative social condition to be overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing value of forest resources has produced an increasing regulation of the use of forest resources in the national states of the Amazonian region. The new generation of forest norms have established a standardised system for the utilisation of forest resources based on two main aspects: the elaboration of forest management plans, and the granting of forest licences by the State's authorities. However, this system has also increased the barriers for applying TFRK in indigenous lands because the current forest norms do not always consider their knowledge, their customary law, and their values. In view of this problem, this paper identifies the gaps and opportunities of the ICH Convention for protecting the TFRK of Amazonian indigenous peoples, considering the national legal frameworks of Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. For doing this, firstly the connection between TFRK and intangible cultural heritage is shown. Secondly, the duties of the national States in relation to TFRK established by the ICH Convention are identified. Thirdly, it is discussed the form TFRK of Amazonian indigenous peoples is regulated in the national legal systems. Finally, it is analysed how the national norms that regulate TFRK of Amazonian indigenous peoples accommodate the ICH Convention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food sovereignty and neo-extractivism are two highly contentious concepts that have emerged in the development studies literature and as development alternatives pursued predominantly by governments in Latin America. This paper engages with both Critical Development Studies (CDS) and Critical Globalization Studies (CGS) to analyze the dynamics of this post-neoliberal model in Bolivia, providing insights into the convergences and contradictions of neo-extractivism and food sovereignty. Rather than challenging or transforming the neoliberal model of development, it is argued that the post-neoliberal model has been used strategically by states to gain and maintain legitimacy while facilitating and even exacerbating exploitative forms of extractivism for the accumulation of wealth and power. This has been possible, in part, due to the contradictory class positions that have materialized as the rural poor are increasingly dependent upon, and adversely incorporated into, new 'modes of extraction'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper finds a positive long-run effect of FDI on total factor productivity through a cointegration analysis of Bolivian time series data over the period 1980–2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In line with a broader Latin American turn to the left, since 2006 Bolivia’s ‘politics of change’ of president Evo Morales includes a new ‘decolonising’ education reform called Avelino Sinani Elizardo Perez (ASEP). With the aim to break down deep historical processes of indigenous denial and exclusion in education, this ‘revolutionary reform’ envisions a radical restructuring of Bolivian society and a revaluation of indigenous epistemological, cultural and linguistic heritage through education. Inspired by Latin America debates on coloniality theory and theories of alternative knowledges, and geared towards broader socio-political processes of social justice, Bolivia’s envisaged education transformation is built around four pillars, being: (1) decolonization, (2) intra- and inter-culturalism together with plurilingualism, (3) productive education and (4) communitarian education. The transformation of pre-service teacher education in Bolivia’s Normales is seen as a crucial step in these processes of socio-educational change. This paper particularly focuses on the ways in which the new ASEP Reforms’ first two pillars of decolonisation and inter-/intracultural education apply to pre-service teacher education and how these discourses for change stand in contrast to various implementation challenges in the teacher education sector, including: a lack of conceptual clarity and information sharing with educators, long and complex processes of a negotiated teacher education curriculum and a general shortage of both teacher trainers’ and future teachers’ indigenous language skills. While Bolivia’s new decolonising education reform is contested by various educational actors, the paper also highlights how the changed socio-political make-up helps to fuel future teachers’ indigenous self-identification, cultural recognition and pluri-linguistic potentials. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contributes to the minimum wage (MW) literature by providing new evidence on the gender effects of the MW in the context of weak compliance with labour regulations. We study Bolivia's case, the country with the highest informal employment share in Latin America according to the International Labour Organization, during a favourable macroeconomic context characterized by a commodities boom that should have eased compliance with an active MW legislation. From a pooled cross-section of household surveys from 2005 to 2013 and a generalized difference-in-difference specification, we find evidence that the MW widened the hourly wage gender gap, and had negative effects on the formalization likelihood. Our findings stress the importance of enforcing compliance with the minimum wage legislation to reduce the gender wage gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing institutional arrangements for supporting sustainable fisheries has been a critical challenge for the governance of common-pool resources, especially in transboundary regions. In this paper, we analyze the impact of governance arrangements on a small-scale fishery system on the Brazil-Bolivia border in the Amazon region. Data collection involved documental analysis, literature review and conduction of semi-structured interviews with fishers and environmental protection/regulatory agencies' staff. We present an exploratory qualitative analysis of the interactions between the fishery system's attributes (biological, environmental, technical and governance), examining institutional arrangements among diverse stakeholders. Results reveal that the small-scale fishery characteristics and the relationships between resources and stakeholders has contributed to stock maintenance and overall sustainability of the fishery system. Nevertheless, we also found that the governance structure is fragile due to weak institutional arrangements within and between countries, resulting in increased vulnerability of the fishery system to imminent threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The illicit drug crops opium and coca are conventionally regarded as sources of instability, an 'evil' that breeds fragility and violence. Fragile states are supposed to be most vulnerable to their production and consequent harms. Yet by looking into the local contexts of the world's leading opium and coca producers – Afghanistan, Myanmar, Colombia and Bolivia – these illicit crops are found to also be sources of stability, even drivers of economic growth. They enable marginalized communities and territories abandoned by the state to be reinserted into national and global markets. Within so-called 'fragile' and conflict-affected areas are displaced and dispossessed households adopting innovative and unorthodox strategies for coping and survival in changing and insecure environments. This paper maps out an approach, useful for examining the resilience that has emerged amidst violence and uncertainty in illicit-crop-producing territories, and which can hopefully tackle the continuing disconnect between drugs and development policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) have not been very successful in gender mainstreaming. This article will show, with examples from the PRSPs of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, how gender issues have been largely ignored in the design, poverty analysis, and policy actions of PRSPs. It will be argued that the reason for this failure is only partially a lack of political will and gender expertise on the side of the governments and PRS teams. Rather, the main reason for the failure of integrating gender in PRSPs is the overall framework of PRSPs, which does not allow for gender mainstreaming in macroeconomic policies. The core of the framework consists of narrowly defined macroeconomic targets and policies, while giving less importance to broader socio-economic objectives and policies. This, in turn, tends to shift gender entirely to a secondary, social concern, rather than being part and parcel of the core of the poverty reduction framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Article 6.8 was included in the Paris Agreement in the last minutes of COP15 after years of advocacy for non-market approaches (NMAs), predominately from Bolivia. Between 2015 - 2021, however, the development of NMAs remained largely stagnant and was hindered by ideological and financial disagreements during negotiations. Despite challenges, the operationalisation of NMAs under Article 6.8 has recently started to take shape. Driving this are the development and maturing of relevant pilot projects, such as the Adaptation Benefits Mechanism (ABM) and the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL), as well as the finalisation of the Paris Agreement Rulebook at COP26. Accordingly, this paper uses a transnational framing to explore these developments and the potential impacts of NMAs under Article 6.8, with particular attention towards financial and ideological considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Andes represent one of the most important eco-regions of the world, fostering an enormous number of taxa associated with different altitudinal gradients. In the past two decades, there has been an increase in the description of different groups of insects, as in the case of the Lucanidae whose number of described species significantly rose in countries such as Peru and Bolivia. Aegognathus, a genus described originally from Peru, gained four new species during the last decade. Since then, the genus has not received proper taxonomic treatment, lacking updated information such as the actual distribution of some species, genitalic descriptions, female descriptions and identification keys. This paper aims to offer new taxonomic knowledge for the Andean species of Aegognathus, with a redescription of the type species, A. waterhousei Leuthner, the description of two new species and an identification key for the Andean taxa, as well as, the discussion of some possible implications in future conservation studies related to the distribution data of the studied taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caviomorph rodents have been an important component of South American mammal faunas at least since the Oligocene. Those from the Deseadan South American Land Mammal Age (SALMA; late Oligocene) have been exhaustively studied because they are considered key to understanding the evolution of South American rodents. Deseadan faunas are widely distributed from northern Peru to central Patagonia, with those from Salla (Bolivia) and Cabeza Blanca (Argentinean Patagonia) being the most diverse. Recent studies of Deseadan rodents at some localities in high (Cabeza Blanca, Punta Nava, Scarritt Pocket) and low (Contamana) latitudes revealed greater taxonomic diversity. However, at middle latitudes, Salla has not received the same attention, despite being exceptional in terms of the abundance and high-quality preservation of specimens. The aim of this work is to report new caviomorph rodents from Salla, and to discuss their systematic and palaeobiogeographical implications in the context of the South American Deseadan caviomorph assemblages. We describe two new genera (†Lapazomys gen. nov. and †Cholamys gen. nov.) and five new species (†Migraveramus lavocati sp. nov., †Sallamys woodi sp. nov., †Lapazomys hartenbergeri sp. nov., †Protosteiromys pattersoni sp. nov. and †Cholamys tetralophodonta sp. nov.). These include the first erethizontids and the oldest Cavioidea sensu stricto for middle and low latitudes. The increase in the number of species corroborates the existence of an important rodent diversification already evidenced in the late early/early late Oligocene. In addition, the new rodents lessen the degree of endemism of the Salla rodent fauna proposed in previous papers. We interpret that the differences among Deseadan assemblages from low, middle and high latitudes are due essentially to climatic, historical and local environmental conditions, whereas diachronism seems less important in the modelling of faunas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The TIPNIS conflict has become a milestone in contemporary research about indigenous movements and Bolivia. Since 2011 when the conflict openly emerged, different views and interpretations have arisen to tackle a puzzle that has multiple dimensions, actors and motivations. This paper seeks to discuss the tensions emerging between the politics of indigeneity and the notions of citizenship in the contemporary indigenous movements in Bolivia. The focus of the analysis is the TIPNIS social conflict and the political outcomes of the VIII march in 2011. The analysis illustrates the complexity and heterogeneity of the indigenous politics in Bolivia and the political dynamics that allowed this conflict to transcend the local sphere to become a catalyst for broader social agendas. These dynamics reveal both the internal tensions among the indigenous organizations in the understanding and the application of the New Political Constitution and the long-term tensions over territories between peasants and indigenous groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Top-down processes of regional integration among the Andean countries of South America are occurring alongside bottom-up processes of Indigenous regionalism in Bolivia and Ecuador that weave together Indigenous peoples' territories across local administrative units and even national borders. In light of this dynamic, the study asks: What explains the new Indigenous regionalism in the Andes? And, what are its implications for formal processes of regional integration? The study examines the cases of the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA) and the National Council of Ayllus and Markas of Qullasuyo (CONAMAQ) as examples of Indigenous regionalism in relation to the institutional innovations of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) to incorporate Indigenous organizations into its structure and agenda. The article argues that the intersections of regional integration, the enactment of the plurinational state, and Indigenous autonomies have provided the necessary institutional space for expressions of Indigenous regionalism to flourish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discourses on sustainable development seldom question the mode of production behind so-called green technologies. Yet so long as these technologies are developed under a capitalist framework, they too will necessitate the cheapening of nature and labor. The socio-ecological costs of development in the Global North have long been borne by the Global South, and the production of green technologies risks reproducing this pattern. To critically engage with these dynamics, we use a political ecology framework to analyze lithium extraction in Bolivia. Supported by interviews with experts on Bolivian lithium extraction, we consider: (1) the anticipated socio-ecological impacts of lithium extraction; (2) the political economy of contemporary Bolivia; and (3) the governance/politics of lithium extraction at the local and global levels. The Bolivian state's effort to exercise its sovereignty and develop its economy through "100% state-led lithium industrialization" risks re-inscribing Bolivia's subordinate position in the world-system. Given the anticipated ecological impacts and unequal revenue distribution, local communities may be on the verge of accumulation by dispossession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether Fair Trade improved the quality of life for Fair Trade women artisans and their communities in Bolivia's high Andes. Grounded in the work of Amartya Sen and ethnographic study, Fair Trade is explored as a form of justice rooted in women's individual freedoms and capabilities. The intellectual merit of this paper is to examine how Fair Trade bridges women's participation in globalisation and development. The broader scope is to create a dialogue around the ethnic feminist experience and private enterprise to expand the understanding of Fair Trade as economic development. Assez équitable ? Le Commerce Equitable et la qualité de la vie parmi les femmes-artisans indigènes en Bolivie Dans cet article il s'agit d'une évaluation de l'amélioration dans la qualité de vie des femmes-artisans engagées dans le Commerce Equitable et de leurs villages aux Hautes Andes de Bolivie. Le Commerce Equitable, basé sur l'œuvre d'Amartya Sen et sur des études ethnographiques, est examiné comme une forme de justice enracinée dans les libertés et les aptitudes personnelles des femmes. Le mérite intellectuel de cet article est d'examiner la façon dont le Commerce Equitable englobe la participation des femmes dans la mondialisation et dans le développement. Son déploiement est de créer un dialogue autour de l'expérience féminine et de l'entreprise privée pour mieux comprendre le développement économique du Commerce Equitable. ¿Bastante justo? El comercio justo y la calidad de vida entre las artesanas indígenas de Bolivia El presente artículo analiza si el comercio justo mejoró la calidad de vida de las artesanas y de sus comunidades en los Andes de Bolivia. Fundamentado en el trabajo de Amartya Sen y en distintos estudios etnográficos, el comercio justo se considera como una forma de justicia surgida de las libertades individuales y de las capacidades de las mujeres. El mérito intelectual de este artículo radica en analizar cómo el comercio justo vincula la participación de las mujeres con la globalización y con el desarrollo. Su objetivo más amplio consiste en generar un diálogo en torno a las vivencias étnicas feministas y a la iniciativa privada, cuyo fin es profundizar la comprensión que se tiene del comercio justo como una vía para el desarrollo económico. Justo o suficiente? O Comércio Justo e a qualidade de vida entre as mulheres indígenas artesãs da Bolívia Este artigo examina se o Comércio Justo (Fair Trade) melhorou a qualidade de vida de mulheres artesãs do Comércio Justo e de suas comunidades nos altos Andes da Bolívia. Tendo como referência o trabalho de Amartya Sen e estudo etnográfico, o Comércio Justo é explorado como forma de justiça baseada na liberdade e capacidade individual das mulheres. O mérito intelectual deste artigo é examinar como o Comércio Justo estende a participação das mulheres na globalização e desenvolvimento. O escopo mais amplo visa proporcionar um diálogo sobre a experiência feminista étnica e empresa privada para aumentar a compreensão do Comércio Justo como desenvolvimento econômico. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines a shift in cultural and movement discourse in Bolivia, arguing that as neoliberalizing governments and organizations attempted to enforce ‘surgical’ austerity measures, indigenous movements and aligned intellectuals began to focus on internal rather than external threats, naming and attempting to expel the figure of the traitorous intermediary from the national body. By analyzing Jorge Sanjinés’ 1989 drama La Nación Clandestina alongside the writings of Bolivian movement intellectuals, this paper shows how Bolivian cultural representations and movement representatives in the neoliberal era animate the figure of the traitorous intermediary in an attempt to revive an indigenous nation. This discourse of the traitorous intermediary draws on the long history of mestizaje that frames the colonial rape and exploitation of indigenous women as an evidence of women’s betrayal and traitorousness. After demonstrating how, in neoliberalism, women and their demands for gender equality are seen once again as symptoms of selling out the nation, this paper moves to the more recent period, analyzing how Rodrigo Bellott’s 2007 film ¿Quien Mató a la Llamita Blanca? and government responses to lowland indigenous groups over the Villa Tunari – San Ignacio de Moxos Highway – playfully stage but ultimately reinforce this tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, the author discusses the paper of Arturo Escobar on social movements, political ecology, and development in Latin America. The author states that the paper considers the neo-liberalism in Latin America as a dismal failure. He says that the criticism of Escobar against Bolivian Vice-President Alvaro Garcia Linera must consider the implication of de-colonial politics in Bolivia. He says that the argument of Escobar on communalism in Bolivia is a form of modernists analysis.

This paper examines decentralisation in Bolivia and Colombia to explore its effects on the uses and spatial distribution of public investment, as well as government responsiveness to local needs. In both countries, investment shifted from infrastructure to social services and human capital formation. Resources were rebalanced in favour of poorer districts. In Bolivia, decentralisation made government more responsive by re-directing public investment to areas of greatest need. In Colombia, municipalities increased investment significantly while running costs fell. Six important lessons emerge from the comparison. For decentralisation to work well: (i) local democracy must be transparent, fair and competitive; (ii) local governments must face hard budget constraints; (iii) central government must be scaled back; (iv) significant tax-raising powers must be devolved; and (v) decentralisation is composed of distinct, separable components, the sequencing of which is important. Finally, (vi) what decentralisation achieves, and whether it is advisable, hinges on how central government behaved pre-reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines and discusses the contrasting histories of inclusion and contestation associated with the introduction of neoliberal and multicultural policies in Bolivia and Guatemala. In drawing out and discussing the ambiguities of multiculturalism in these countries, the paper aims to validate and further develop Charles Hale's recent thesis of the indio permitido (permitted Indian). Whereas Hale's thesis refers to a project of neoliberal governance and control, I argue that recent events reveal the partial failure of this project. As much as the idea of the indio permitido articulates a critique of the shortcomings and ambiguities of these reforms, it also points to the factors that account for salient innovations in the mass protests that have been taking place in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extending economic accounts with sets of social and environmental indicators is a first step towards a more integrated analysis of aspects of sustainability problems. In this article, therefore, a proposal is made to nest social and environmental indicators into an existing economic accounting framework. The Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) is taken as a basis, because of its flexibility regarding extensions with non-monetary data addressing social and environmental concerns. The main thrust of the paper is methodological. From the discussion of methodological issues and the application to the SAM for Bolivia for the year 1989, it is concluded that it is, in principle, feasible and relatively simple to extend the SAM with the two sets of indicators. However, additional data will have to be collected to be able to address, more adequately, the problems of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does welfare state expansion reconfigure political coalitions? This paper challenges traditional accounts that pit social policy ‘insiders’, who univocally oppose policy expansion, against ‘outsiders’ who favour it. It argues that labour market vulnerability and partisan cues can play a critical role in shaping the preferences of both insiders and outsiders, and thus produce new pro-expansion coalitions. To test this claim, it employs historical analysis of key social insurance configurations in Bolivia over the last 30 years, as well as an original survey carried out in Bolivia following that nation’s 2007 extension of a noncontributory national minimum pension. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The efforts of Bolivia's water sector to adapt to climate change include the mainstreaming of adaptation in water policy instruments and broad capacity building processes supported by climate funds and international cooperation. These sector-wide adaptation experiences in the country present important learning challenges across different governance levels. This paper analyzes multi-level learning in the governance of adaptation taking place in the water sector in Bolivia, by focusing on changes in the cognitive, normative and relational domains of learning. The analysis is guided by three questions: (i) Which institutional arrangements enable multi-level learning in the governance of adaptation in Bolivia's water sector? (ii) What are the cognitive, normative and relational dimensions of learning in these arrangements? (iii) What are the implications of multi-level learning for shaping desired outcomes in the governance of adaptation? The case contributes to understanding multi-level learning processes in the governance of adaptation, including the role of national and international climate change policy instruments in these. In addition, the study provides methodological insights for assessing multi-level learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In papers previously published in this journal J. M. Stycos and D. M. Heer have shown that fertility is lower in the economically underdeveloped Indian-speaking parts of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia than in the more prosperous Spanish-speaking parts. Stycos concluded that the reason for the fertility difference in Peru is the greater marital instability of the Indian speakers which decreased their total exposure to the risk of conception. Heer suggested instead that the causes of the difference may be voluntary. The present paper questions Heer's analysis, and offers the explanation that the difference may be attributed to the physiological effects of altitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant transition is underway in Bolivia where both domestic and foreign capital are monopolizing commercial agriculture and leading a highly mechanized, capital-intensive production model which has considerably diminished the need for labour. This paper explores mechanisms and processes of ‘productive exclusion’ in the soy-producing zones of Santa Cruz in relation to the expansion, concentration and mechanization of the ‘soy complex’. We provide an analysis of how the agrarian structure has developed since soy was adopted – from ‘putting land into production’ to ‘expanding the agricultural frontier’ and ‘controlling the agro-industrial chain’. We explore how and the extent to which the penetration of new capital is leading to new processes of agrarian change which exclude the rural majority from accessing the means of production. While a process of ‘foreignization’ of land began to take shape in the early 1990s, new processes of capital accumulation are eroding the ability of small farmers to engage in productive activity, potentially leading to ‘surplus’ populations no longer needed for capital accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents new data about Early Permian (Cisuralian) strata, palynostratigraphy and absolute dating from the Copacabana Formation in central Bolivia. Recent stratigraphic and palynologic data from marine and transitional rocks at Apillapampa refine the age of Cisuralian palynomorphs in South America. Twelve samples interbedded with five volcanic ashes (processed and productive) yielded 94 palynomorph species arranged in two informal palynoassemblages: the lower assemblageVittatina costabiliscorresponds to one sample near the base of the Copacabana Formation and the upperLueckisporites virkkiaeassemblage occurs in overlying marine and coal-bearing transitional intervals. Ages were also independently refined by a modern review of conodonts, fusulinids, along with those U–Pb radiometric ages (Isotope Dilution Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry [ID-TIMS] of zircon-bearing interbedded tuffs). These data suggest that the lower marine member of the Copacabana Formation at this location is Asselian and Sakmarian.Lueckisporites virkkiaeis a key species of palynomorph utilised in South American and global Permian biostratigraphic reconstructions. Hence, a thorough global comparison of these palynofloras and correlations is addressed in this contribution, considering first appearances of mainly cosmopolitan diagnostic taxa. Correlations are established with many similar Permian palynofloras, some also constrained with radiometric data, in South America (Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina) and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water scarcity is a growing issue for high altitude arid countries like Bolivia, where serious water resource concerns exist because of climate change and population growth. In this study we use a recent Bolivian rock glacier inventory (Rangecroft et al., 2014) to estimate the water equivalent storage of these understudied cryospheric reserves. This paper shows that Bolivian rock glaciers currently store between 11.7 and 137 million cubic meters of water. Rock glacier water equivalents are compared to corresponding ice glacier water equivalent to allow an assessment of the hydrological importance of rock glaciers as water stores in this water scarce region. It can be seen that in the densely glaciated Cordillera Real (15°-16°S) rock glaciers form a small component of mountain water stores; however, along the Cordillera Occidental (17°-22°S), where ice glaciers are absent, rock glaciers are a more important part of the cryospheric water store, suggesting that they could be important for local water management. This is the first time that the water equivalence of the Bolivian rock glacier store has been quantified and is a first step toward assessing the contribution and importance of alternative high altitude water sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This paper examines social inequality in children's health following the election of Evo Morales. Bolivia is marked by dramatic socioeconomic, ethnic and geographic inequality in children's health. The Morales government initiated several public health reforms designed to provide more equal access to public health services. Methods: Analysis was conducted using Bolivia Demographic and Health Survey data from 2003 to 2008. Results: The analysis shows some improvements in children's health. However, inequality in access to doctors, child mortality and child nutritional status did not diminish. In contrast, inequalities in immunization declined dramatically. Conclusions: Results suggest that aspects of health that are easier to implement such as immunization are more accessible to public policy than are more complex health problems like malnutrition and high child mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of food sovereignty has been enshrined in the constitutions of a number of countries around the world without any clear consensus around what state-sponsored ‘food sovereignty’ might entail. At the forefront of this movement are the countries of the so-called ‘pink tide’ of Latin America – chiefly Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia. This paper examines how state commitments to food sovereignty have been put into practice in these three countries, asking if and how efforts by the state contribute to significant transformation or if they simply serve the political purposes of elites. Understanding the state as a complex arena of class struggle, we suggest that state efforts around food sovereignty open up new political spaces in an ongoing struggle around control over food systems at different scales. Embedded in food sovereignty is a contradictory notion of sovereignty, requiring simultaneously a strong developmentalist state and the redistribution of power to facilitate direct control over food systems in ways that may threaten the state. State-society relations, particularly across scales, are therefore a central problematic of food sovereignty projects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the sustainability of the current account deficit in eighteen Latin American countries through the analysis of the stationarity properties of the current account balance. First, we apply traditional unit root tests and consider the possibility of structural breaks. Second, since the current account may have a nonlinear behaviour, we test for linearity in the data and analyse current account stationarity by means of a recently developed nonlinear unit root test. Results from linear and nonlinear unit root tests show that current account sustainability is supported for the majority of Latin American countries with the exception of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay. For the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela the current account dynamics are best described by a stationary linear model, and by a stationary linear model with a mean shift in years 2003, 1982 and 1980 in Bolivia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, respectively. In the case of Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala, results show that the current account is best described by a mean-reverting nonlinear process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agrarian reforms do not constitute linear processes: rather, they are based on the interconnection between the crystallization of land governance in formal tenure rules and the way societies organize around a set of identities and power mechanisms. This paper focuses on how the misinterpretation of this two-way relationship, in setting up a new normative framework, can generate unintended consequences in terms of conflict. The recent wave of land conflicts in Bolivia shows how changes in the allocation of strategic resources inspired by the so-called ‘politics of recognition’ triggered processes of political ethnicization and organizational fragmentation, eventually contributing to fuelling new tensions between indigenous groups and peasant unions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Climate change has become an important issue in Bolivia as communities across the lowlands and highlands are beginning to feel the direct effects of the ecological crisis. While Evo Morales, the current president of Bolivia, has surfaced as an international superstar for the climate justice movement, behind his public appearances at UN climate conferences are indigenous organizations and social movements who work daily to map out strategies for adaptation and mitigation. This paper analyzes how indigenous climate justice activists in Bolivia mobilize a particular vision of Andean indigeneity, frozen in time and space, to make specific political claims about their rights in relationship to the environment and propose alternative economic structures. Many activists argue that the ecological problems of this century are a direct result of advanced capitalism, which has turned lands, forests, and natural surrounds into commodities. However, their timeless vision of indigeneity, particularly using the imagined ayllu or pre-Columbian land-holding patterns as solutions to climate crisis, poses dangers for the millions of Bolivians who live and work in urban centers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]