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In this paper I argue that assemblage theory provides an innovative way to extend critique of sustainable development as it is being remade by the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Drawing on recent fieldwork in Bolivia, I examine the early take‐up and implementation of the SDGs in a site of intensifying resource extraction and struggles for radical development alternatives. Based on this analysis, I argue that the SDGs as assemblage act as a form of anti‐politics by rendering neutral and apolitical the conflictive politics of extractivism. In this paper I argue that assemblage theory provides an innovative way to extend critique of sustainable development as it is being remade by the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Drawing on recent fieldwork in Bolivia, I examine the early take‐up and implementation of the SDGs in a site of intensifying resource extraction and struggles for radical development alternatives. I foreground the assemblage of institutions, discourses, landscapes, and infrastructures that are at once disciplined and held together to materialise and legitimise particular interpretations of sustainable development. This helps highlight what I term the "lost geographies" of the assemblage. Based on this analysis, I argue that the SDGs as assemblage act as a form of anti‐politics by rendering neutral and apolitical the conflictive politics of extractivism. As global momentum to combat climate crisis and environmental crisis grows, such assemblage work helps explain how powerful, extractivist development logics are nevertheless being maintained and reworked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the new global development goals guiding the work of mainstream development actors until 2030. The shift to "sustainable development" marks a response to climate change and constitutes a rebranding of international development as global development, prominently by the UN, World Bank, and IMF. In this paper, I draw from recent fieldwork in Bolivia to question what is being globalised. In response to calls for northern geographers to better attend to new forms of coloniality and knowledge production, I take seriously indigenous agendas for development, land, and sovereignty to critique Agenda 2030 with decolonial territorial agendas and theories of environmental justice. I argue that the implementation of Agenda 2030 has reconfigured the borderlands between international development and indigenous territorial agendas. In a drastic reworking of the "boomerang effect," development infrastructure is being disconnected from anti‐extractive indigenous territorial politics, as the modes of engagement between states, the private sector, and NGOs are reconfigured by the unifying agenda of sustainable development – weakening both indigenous struggles for territorial sovereignty and the environmental remit of the SDGs. An environmental justice perspective locates the case of the Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro (TIPNIS) Secure case within a bigger struggle between local claims to land and global extractive capital, foregrounding that decolonial agendas for territory are entangled with contemporary extractive capitalism. In seeking consensus between states, the private sector, and civil society, the SDGs minimise the sites of conflict that instruct "sustainable development," revealing both a critical weakness of the SDGs and a pathway towards their greater effectiveness. The 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the new global development goals guiding the work of mainstream development actors until 2030 and constituting a rebranding of international development as global development, prominently by the UN, World Bank and IMF. In this paper, I draw from recent fieldwork in Bolivia and take seriously indigenous agendas for development, land, and sovereignty, critiquing Agenda 2030 with decolonial territorial agendas and theories of environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Antipode is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Indigenous Peoples are gaining renewed attention within both policy and academia, as examples of “resilience” and of non‐humanist, non‐modern ways of relating to nature, which might, it is hoped, provide tools to withstand the socio‐ecological crises associated with “the Anthropocene”. This paper argues that such representations obscure both their own colonial foundations and the ongoing forms of racialised dispossession and ecocide faced by Indigenous Peoples today. Instead, we conceptualise indigeneity and nature as deeply entangled categories that are co‐produced with capitalist modernity. Engaging anti‐colonial and Marxist scholarship, and drawing on our long‐term research with Indigenous movements in Bolivia and Colombia, we highlight how discursive and material assemblages of indigeneity and nature are dialectically linked to capitalist processes of dispossession and subaltern efforts to contest these. We further highlight how romanticised accounts of non‐modern nature‐cultures are unsettled by the violent world‐making of colonial capitalism and the unequal burdens placed on Indigenous territories and bodies. We use an ethnographic vignette from the Bolivian Chaco to illustrate the messy everyday ways in which real Indigenous people navigate, contest, endure, and make do amidst the contradictory processes of racialisation, dispossession, and conditional recognition that characterise their positioning within colonial capitalism. In doing so, we show how thinking from the sacrifice zones of extractive capitalism unsettles contemporary debates on decolonising nature in the Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge on seed ecology is foundational for effective seed‐based restoration including seedling production, direct seed sowing, topsoil transplant, and natural regeneration. Consequently, quantifying available knowledge and biases in seed‐based research allows practitioners to better plan and implement seed‐based restoration programs and identify research priorities. Using a systematic review comprising 45 papers, 401 species, and 2,415 case studies, we provide an overview of seed ecology research in the Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetland. We identified geographic, taxonomic, and ecological biases, as well as knowledge gaps in seed functions including production, dispersal, dormancy, germination, predation, and stress tolerance. Studies concentrated near large cities resulting in extensive unexplored sites in central Pantanal, in Paraguay, and in Bolivia. Unexpectedly, the most studied species were conducted with dry‐fruited, terrestrial forbs, or shrubs with autochoric or zoochoric dispersal syndromes. Seed banks, stress tolerance, and dispersal were the most studied topics, whereas studies on dormancy and seedling establishment remain rare. We also found disproportionate research interest across the angiosperm tree of life with many examples of underrepresented and overrepresented families. Altogether, persistent knowledge gaps in seed‐based research in the Pantanal hinder upscaling restoration programs and consequently the likelihood of achieving the targets of UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. We propose an integrated agenda consisting of a series of orchestrated actions to overcome such barriers, close biodiversity knowledge shortfalls, and promote successful large‐scale restoration programs in the Pantanal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncertainty remains over local‐scale responses of ecotonal Amazonian forests to middle Holocene drying due to the scarcity, and coarse spatial resolution, of lacustrine pollen records. This paper examines the palaeoecological potential of soil phytoliths, stable carbon isotopes and charcoal for capturing local‐scale ecotonal responses of different types of Bolivian Amazonian forest to middle Holocene climate change. Soil pits 1 m deep were dug at ecotones between rainforest, dry forest, Chaco woodland and savannah, and sampled at 5–10 cm resolution. Both phytolith and stable carbon isotope records indicate stability of dry forest–savannah ecotones over the last ca. 6000 years, despite middle Holocene drought, revealing the dominance of edaphic factors over climate in controlling this type of ecotone. In contrast, δ13C data reveal that rainforest–savannah ecotones were more responsive to climate change, with rainforest likely replaced by drought‐tolerant dry forest or savannah vegetation during the mid‐Holocene, consistent with regional‐scale lacustrine pollen records. However, such shifts are not apparent in most of our phytolith records due to insufficient taxonomic resolution in differentiating rainforest from dry forest. Charcoal data show that ecotonal dry forests experienced greater fire activity than rainforests and that recent high fire activity at all forest sites is unprecedented since at least the middle Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social movement tactic of occupying land, factories, and other workplaces has regained popularity in Latin America over the past decade. These occupations have garnered international attention due to the direct confrontation with neoliberalism that they embody, whilst less attention has been drawn to the particular use of law that underpins this confrontation. Through an examination of the use of law by the Landless Peasants' Movement in Bolivia and by the factory occupation movement in Argentina, this paper explores how these occupation movements have combined both an eschewal and embrace of law in what can be understood as a creative 'radical legal praxis'. The paper sketches the contours of what a theorisation of this approach might look like and suggests that this particular engagement with law challenges traditional understandings of occupation movements and contains important possibilities for emancipatory resistance to neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the particular role played by anarchism in early 20th century discussions concerning the Bolivian nation and citizenship. Based on a diverse corpus of documents and extended specialised literature, I will argue that between the 1920s and 1940s the local anarchist movement took part in these debates by rejecting the Creole oligarchy's definition of the nation and proposing one of its own. Ideologically, this intervention meant imagining a different, more inclusive national community made up of racialised and gendered identities. Practically, it implied fighting against internal colonialism, struggling for equal citizenship, and defending the ethnic and gender identity and human dignity of mestizos, cholas, and indigenous people. By reconstructing these debates and some anarchist "ethno‐classist" struggles of the period, I approach the anticolonial orientation of Bolivian anarchism, and more generally, examine a historical experience in which subaltern subjectivities intervened in nation‐building away from a statist, Western and patriarchal path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Reading Research Quarterly is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the relationship between mining, memory and environmental suffering on the Bolivian Altiplano (Andean plateau). Mining activity has had a long and well documented role in transforming landscapes throughout the Andean region, and Bolivia provides some of South America's starkest examples of mine‐related water and soil contamination. In Bolivia, mining is publicly memorialised as central to the collective national experience, and public murals and monuments help construct a national identity as a país minero (mining country). Memory is similarly important, though less public, for populations impacted by mine‐related pollution and their demands for remediation and reparation. In discussing these conditions, residents of the region draw on memories of past landscapes and waterscapes, which they often represent as verdant and bountiful. Such memory narratives are less important for what they tell us about the former landscapes – which were likely less pristine than reported – than what they tell us about contemporary conditions. Drawing on ethnographic research, I argue that memory – as represented in stories told about past experience – necessarily requires selective remembering and selective forgetting, and may function as a political and ideological resource in its own right. In this sense, memory can be mobilised in various forms and at a range of scales, from the individual to the national. As a representation of the past, memory is always also a representation of the present, and a reflection of contemporary realities, which in turn informs political demands. The paper ends by considering the potential and limitations of memory as a conceptual tool for envisioning environmentally just futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents Ag, Cu, and Pb isotopes for five silver and 10 copper artefacts found in the first intact pre‐Columbian tomb of the Wari culture female elite at Castillo de Huarmey, Peru. Ag and Cu isotope data indicate that the metals were extracted from primary, hypogene ore deposits. Most of the Pb isotope data for the Castillo de Huarmey artefacts correlate with the core Wari site of Conchopata, suggesting utilization of ores from similar deposits. The observed spread in Pb isotopes can be explained by the utilization of regional ores with highly variable Pb isotopes, such as the Julcani deposit. Alternatively, the linear nature of the Pb isotope results obtained for these samples may also be a result of the mixing of ores from different deposits or the re‐smelting of metals. Some of the Pb isotope results also indicate imports from other remote regions, providing evidence for long‐distance interactions on a vast regional scale, in the northern (North Coast of Peru) and southern (Southern Peru and Potosi region in Bolivia) spheres of influence of the Wari Empire and the Tiwanaku state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role that universities play in supporting social entrepreneurs (SEs) across their ecosystem. Adopting the resource‐based view (RBV) approach, we argue that universities attract, mobilize, and deploy multiple resources that benefit SEs through four main mechanisms (i.e., teaching, research, outreach, and the development of partnerships). We use a qualitative approach of 62 semi‐structured interviews and 8 focus groups in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Colombia. Our contribution shows that employing different resources and engaging in supportive activities of universities towards SEs facilitate the development of university capabilities, such as an increased reputation, development of leadership skills for students and staff, and wider access to ecosystem resources that support other university activities related to teaching, research, and community outreach. The role that partnerships play in the development of these capabilities is fundamental, thanks to the different strategic alliances and mobilization of resources between universities and other actors while supporting SEs. This study contributes to our understanding of the role universities can play to intensify the nature of supportive ecosystems for SEs. This contribution is relevant not only to academics but also to practitioners, as this will shed light on the building, development, and scaling of a supportive ecosystem for SEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Silala is a small river, originating in the Andean Altiplano, which flows from Bolivia into Chile. Prior to a legal dispute between Chile and Bolivia over the status and use of the waters of the Silala, few hydrological studies had been performed in the basin. Further insights were required to better understand the surface‐water and groundwater discharges from Bolivia to Chile, and the effects of historical channelization of the Bolivian wetlands on these flows. A semi‐distributed hydrological model was therefore developed to estimate the discharges from the basin and provide recharge inputs to a groundwater model used to investigate the effects of channelization. Long‐term temperature and precipitation data were available for 1969–1992, while more detailed data were available for 2018–2019. 1969–1992 was selected as a suitable length of record for long‐term groundwater recharge estimation, and the recent data were reserved for model validation, reported in a companion paper. Prior model parameter ranges were identified based on field observations and scientific literature, and sampling of both input and parameter uncertainty allowed determination of representative, lower and upper groundwater recharge scenarios. Results show strong inter‐annual and seasonal variability, the largest groundwater recharge being observed during the Austral summer. A representative groundwater recharge rate of 39.5 mm/year was obtained for the basin to the international border, with feasible lower and upper bounds of 34.9 and 50.2 mm/year, respectively. This lies within the range of 21–51 mm/year estimated by Bolivia for 1969–2017, albeit higher than their best estimate (24 mm/year). This article is categorized under:Science of Water > Hydrological Processes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key issue in the legal case before the International Court of Justice between Bolivia and Chile concerned artificial channels in the headwater wetlands of the Silala River in Bolivia, and their impact on the river and groundwater flow rates across the international border into Chile. In pleadings before the Court, Bolivia had claimed up to 40% changes in river flow, whereas Chile had maintained that these were much smaller. This paper reviews construction of a numerical groundwater model to quantify this impact, based on the hydrogeological conceptual model presented earlier in this volume. The groundwater model domain covers the Silala River topographical catchment, plus three adjacent closed (endorheic) topographical catchments to the northeast, which together form the groundwater catchment of the Silala River. The geometry was based on a 3D geological model, constructed based on knowledge gained from several geological mapping investigations. Surface water flows were simulated within a margin of error less than the range of uncertainty associated with the flow measurements. The resulting calibrated groundwater model was used to simulate scenarios corresponding to (a) the removal of channels in the Bolivian wetlands and (b) backfilling of the channels and a small increase in ground elevation (postulated by Bolivia due to long term peat accumulation). The results of these scenarios indicate that the measures would result in a small reduction to the surface water flow over the border to Chile; for Scenario A less than 1% change in surface flows, and for Scenario B less than 3%. This article is categorized under:Human Water > Rights to WaterScience of Water > Hydrological ProcessesHuman Water > Water Governance [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dispute between Chile and Bolivia regarding the status and use of the waters of the Silala River resulted in proceedings before the International Court of Justice, initiated in 2016. The magnitude of the effect of historical channelization in Bolivia on surface water flows emerged as a major point of disagreement. Based on modeling by the Danish Hydraulic Institute (DHI), using the MIKE‐SHE and MIKE‐11 modeling systems, Bolivia suggested initially that the channels had increased surface flow by 30%–40% and later by 11%–33%. In the opinion of Chile's international experts, these effects would be small. This paper reviews the use of DHI's models by Bolivia and, subsequently, by Chile. Concerns about Bolivia's modeling raised by Chile included the selection of boundary conditions, inconsistent use of the two models for different scenarios, the use of inconsistent topographies for different scenarios, unexplained additions of water and numerical instabilities affecting the results. To investigate these discrepancies, additional simulations were performed by Chile. DHI's MIKE‐SHE and MIKE‐11 models were used for all scenarios, with consistent topography, spring and surface water flow representation. Numerical instabilities were reduced by adjustment of time steps and channel topography. These simulations showed that removing the channels reduces surface flow by a maximum of 3.5 L/s, or 2.4%. The sum of the groundwater and surface water outflow decreases by 2.6 L/s or 1.0%. This small decrease lies within the modeling error but is consistent with the expected effect of minor changes in evaporation. This article is categorized under:Science of Water > Hydrological ProcessesHuman Water > Rights to WaterScience of Water > Methods [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flows of surface water and groundwater from the Andes to the Atacama Desert are a vital source of freshwater, supporting ecosystems and human activities, but few substantive studies have addressed the hydrological and hydrogeological functioning of these systems. A dispute between Chile and Bolivia concerning the transboundary Silala River, recently heard before the International Court of Justice, The Hague, provided a unique opportunity for new scientific studies, reviewed in this Special Issue. First, findings from field studies that address the geological and geomorphological evolution of the Silala River basin and its current status, the key hydrological processes (including infiltration, actual evaporation from wetlands and alluvial plains, and surface water‐groundwater interactions), and the hydrogeological characterization of the major aquifers are reviewed. The dispute arose because Bolivia disagreed that the Silala was a transboundary river, subject to international law. As the Court proceedings evolved, this was accepted by Bolivia, but effects on surface flows of historical channelization in the Bolivian headwater wetlands remained a point of legal and technical disagreement. Bolivia asserted large increases in surface flow, based on modeling by their consultants, DHI. Chile held that these effects are small. In the second part of this paper, we summarize the modeling evidence. Chile's use of DHI's models, and its own hydrological and groundwater modeling of the basin, fully support Chile's position. We conclude with discussion of the Court's judgment, the challenges of physically‐based modeling of small changes in complex systems, and associated implications for judicial practice. This article is categorized under:Human Water > Water GovernanceScience of Water > Hydrological ProcessesScience of Water > Water and Environmental Change [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Winkel et al. (2012) have written a note called 'The sustainability of quinoa production in southern Bolivia: from misrepresentations to dubious solutions. A reply to S. Jacobsen', which is arguing against my paper (J. Agron. Crop Sci. 197, 2011, 390). In the following, I will respond to their main points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most important theoretical argument concerning decentralised participatory governance is that it can make a government more accountable for the needs of the governed. Key to this process are participatory spaces that act as mechanisms for dialogue between citizens and local government. However, within Cochabamba, a city in the centre of Bolivia, South America, 'at‐risk' citizens engage minimally with disaster risk issues in participatory spaces, despite high levels of civic participation. This is because 'at‐risk' populations view disasters as a private/household problem that is symptomatic of household error, rather than seeing them as a broader public problem due to wider structural inequalities. Consequently, they redistribute responsibility for disaster risk reduction towards households, which (re)produces the absolution of government authorities as guarantors of disaster risk reduction. This paper challenges the normative assumption that participatory spaces facilitate democratic deliberation of disaster risk reduction and the downward accountability of local government for disaster risk reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper analyses the politics of agrarian change in Bolivia in the context of the development and expansion of the soy complex in Santa Cruz. It attempts to contribute to a better understanding of the nature and role of the state in relation to agrarian change through what is referred to here as the state–society–capital nexus. From an “agrarian” to a “productive” revolution in the countryside, this paper situates the rise of the Movement Toward Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS) to state power and its ability to maintain control over the state apparatus by balancing both accumulation and legitimation interests through its neo‐extractivist development strategy. As extractivist rents fall with the commodities bust and smallholders' exclusion becomes more apparent, the MAS' overextension in facilitating capital accumulation is beginning to show signs of a legitimacy crisis. The politics of agrarian change remain as contested as the dynamics within the state–society–capital nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Has the past decade of sustained economic growth and political transformations reversed Latin America's historical failure to secure market and social incorporation? To address this question this article draws on the experiences of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay by distinguishing between short-term outcomes - which may depend on benign international conditions - and policy changes, which are more important for long-term performance. It highlights the overall success of both Brazil and Uruguay and shows that the other countries have made more progress in terms of social than market incorporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Realistic planning for a nutrition intervention is a critical component of implementation, yet effective approaches have been poorly documented. Under the auspices of 'The Micronutrient Powders Consultation: Lessons Learned for Operational Guidance,' 3 working groups were formed to summarize experiences and lessons across countries regarding micronutrient powders (MNP) interventions for young children. This paper focuses on programmatic experiences in the planning stages of an MNP intervention, encompassing assessment, enabling environment and adaptation, as well as considerations for supply. Methods included a review of published and grey literature, key informant interviews, and deliberations throughout the consultation process. We found that assessments helped justify adopting an MNP intervention, but these assessments were often limited by their narrow scope and inadequate data. Establishing coordinating bodies and integrating MNP into existing policies and programmes have helped foster an enabling environment and support programme stability. Formative research and pilots have been used to adapt MNP interventions to specific contexts, but they have been insufficient to inform scale-up. In terms of supply, most countries have opted to procure MNP through international suppliers, but this still requires understanding and navigating the local regulatory environment at the earliest stages of an intervention. Overall, these findings indicate that although some key planning and supply activities are generally undertaken, improvements are needed to plan for effective scale-up. Much still needs to be learned on MNP planning, and we propose a set of research questions that require further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines processes of primitive accumulation and livelihood dispossession on the Bolivian Altiplano. Through empirical examination of the social and environmental effects of mining waste, the paper demonstrates that indigenous campesino community members are experiencing livelihood dispossession by way of three interrelated forms of accumulation: accumulation of toxic sediments on agricultural fields; accumulation of water and water rights by mining firms; and accumulation of territory by mining operations. In the case under examination, full proletarianization is not taking place, and processes of dispossession are not a 'fix' for an overaccumulation crisis. The paper argues for greater attention to the contingent role of nature's materiality in processes of dispossession and accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based decision-support methodology that has been implemented and is being used by a not-for-profit organization, Fe y Alegría, which runs 439 Bolivian schools reaching over 160,000 disadvantaged students in that poverty-stricken Latin American nation. Bolivia is a poor country with the highest percentage of indigenous population and the lowest per capita income in South America and as such its inhabitants are in dire need of effective educational resources to help them out of poverty. The DEA-based methodology described in this paper has offered an objective way to compare network schools among themselves and with out-of-network schools, providing a deeper understanding of school efficiency levels in the face of scarce resources, and allowing for sharing of best practices across the network. The paper introduces the educational environment in Bolivia, presents the DEA model, describes the decision support methodology, and provides two examples of its use. The first example compares Fe y Alegría secondary schools with out-of-network secondary schools using publicly available data, and the second compares Fe y Alegría secondary schools among themselves using a proprietary database. The paper also comments on lessons learned and the need for broad consensus-building and organization-wide buy-in for successful adoption and maximum impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the research carried out in the Tiwanaku World Heritage site in Bolivia, using unmanned aerial vehicles and satellite images. The combined use of images with different scales has made it possible to locate many archaeological structures unknown to date (drainage systems, walls, circular crop marks, and a possible dock). The Sentinel‐2 images, which were processed using principal components analysis and histogram equalization, show the river beds, flood‐prone areas, and several buried drainage channels surrounding the most important structures. The archaeological evidence obtained with the digital terrain model and natural color/multispectral images enables us to contrast a new dimension of land and water uses that go beyond what was known to date. In the same way, these images enable us to understand in detail the environmental characteristics, land use, building distribution, and flood defense structures of the Tiwanaku culture throughout its history, within the context of the environmental conditions of the Bolivian altiplano. This study allowed the authors to collect new information and pose questions on the relationship of this site with water, as well as a better understanding of the extent and habitat of this historical population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the spectacular financial collapse of Enron in 2001, Enron and Shell's Rio San Miguel-Cuiabá gas pipeline gained international notoriety for degrading the last, most intact dry tropical forest in the world, Bolivia's Chiquitano forest. The paper uses specific case studies, including the case of the Cuiabá pipeline, to examine how economic restructuring sponsored by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) facilitated the entrance of multinational oil corporations that have caused significant social and environmental impacts in Bolivia. The paper explores the influence of international financial institutions and multinational oil corporations on Bolivian state institutions, particularly their ability to regulate and address impacts caused by developments in the hydrocarbons sector. It concludes that neoliberal policies, which resulted in partial privatisation of the state oil company and in expanded control over natural resources by multinational corporations (MNCs), were detrimental to sensitive ecosystems and indigenous inhabitants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an ethnographic analysis of a group of secondary school students' protests against (illegal) bars in the city centre of El Alto, Bolivia. It shows how informal and formal practices are entangled through the state's dependence on the (illegal) actions of the citizenry in order to ensure civil security. The paper suggests that urban intervention is coproduced by state and nonstate actors at the margins of the state and that urban transformation entails subject formation, in this case that of political youth. Following Hansen and Verkaaik's (2009) argument that the city is essentially multilayered and unknowable, I argue that urban life, as well as state-citizen relations, is indeterminate, and that it is due to this indeterminacy that the students succeeded in transforming a common association between Alteño youth, alcohol consumption and potential criminal conduct into an alternative notion of youth as responsible citizens of the New Bolivia. This conceptualization permits us to understand the urban sphere as a space not only of conflict but also of endurance and hope, and hence as a zone that allows for the imaginative production of the otherwise (Povinelli, 2011). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an abstract of the study `Salivary progesterone profile of indigenous Andean women,' by V.J. Vitzthum, P.T. Ellison and S. Sukalich. Determinants of reproductive health in Bolivian women; Assay for salivary progesterone.

This paper analyzes the importance of numerical abilities, conscientiousness, and financial literacy for individuals' financial decision making and participation in formal financial markets. Our analysis is based on the Financial Capabilities Survey, which was applied in four countries of the Andean Region: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The empirical analysis underlines the centrality of numerical abilities, different subfacets of conscientiousness (propensity to plan, perseverance, and scrupulosity), and financial literacy in developing a propensity to save and borrow, and in participating in the formal financial sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a widespread understanding in critical scholarly literature that the government of Evo Morales is fundamentally challenging the neoliberal order in Bolivia. The empirical record of Morales' first five years in office, however, illustrates significant neoliberal continuities in the country's political economy. At the same time, the most important social movements that resisted neoliberalism prior to Morales' election have been considerably demobilized in its wake. This gives rise to the critique that the Morales government has merely implemented a more politically stable version of the model of accumulation it inherited. This paper draws on recent field research in Bolivia to make a contribution to this broader research agenda on reconstituted neoliberalism. Our focus is twofold. On the one hand, the paper examines the continuities of agrarian class relations from the INRA law at the height of neoliberalism in 1996 to the various agrarian reform initiatives introduced since Morales assumed office in 2006. On the other hand, the paper traces the mobilization of the Bolivian Landless Peasants' Movement ( MST) in response to the failure of the 1996 neoliberal agrarian reform, followed by the movement's demobilization after Morales' 2006 agrarian reform initiative. The paper explores this demobilization in the context of agrarian relations that have remained largely unchanged in the same period. Finally, the paper draws on recent reflections by MST members who, to varying degrees, seem to be growing critical of Morales' failure to fundamentally alter rural class relations, and the difficulties of remobilizing their movement at the present time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the circulation of a national health reform policy in Bolivia. While much of what exists as policy finds its dissemination and implementation in literary and material forms such as documents, pamphlets, and legal papers, I suggest that both documented and performative forms of policy provide openings to aesthetic realization that exceed the staid and stable manifestations of finished forms. I examine the presentations and performances of a national health reform policy, which repeated in different iterations and were represented through a variety of aesthetic strategies throughout the country, such as through slide presentations, vocalization, and images. I suggest that the circulation of policy demands an attention not only to specific forms of dissemination but also to the governance strategies and histories that dictate the aesthetic practices and possibilities through which these media come into life, interpellate audiences, and make possible interactive engagements with its content and implementation. This work can help researchers think critically about policy more generally and raise questions about how to study health policy circulation ethnographically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current economic downturn has a significant impact on migrants' lives, including their considerations of return. Massive returns have potentially disastrous consequences for migrants' countries of origin, especially those countries that have become dependent on remittances. Yet, return is the least understood part of the migration process. Based on comparative observations of the same group of migrants following the Argentinean crisis in 2001 and the current economic downturn in Spain, this paper sheds light on how migrants decide about returning to their country of origin during times of crises. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about political participation, neoliberalism, and local governance is presented. It discusses participatory processes in local governance, in global contexts from Great Britain and Spain to South Africa and Bolivia. The authors examine the contributing factors of local governance under neoliberalism.

Social conflicts are a serious obstacle to economic growth in many Latin American societies, affecting economic activity both in the short and the long run. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we develop a methodology to estimate the direct, short-run impact of frequently occurring exponents of local conflicts, such as road blockings, on economic activity. The methodology is based on using high frequency (daily) data to estimate the relation between a proxy for economic activity and the occurrence of road blockings. Careful analysis of impulse-response functions traces the effect of such local social conflicts on economic activity. This information is combined with the aggregate annual time series relation between gross domestic product (GDP) and the high frequency proxy for economic activity to estimate the direct cost of local social conflicts for the economy as a whole. Second, we apply the proposed methodology to analyse the direct economic costs of road blockings in Bolivia, using detailed daily information for the year 2003. The results show that these costs are large. Stronger institutions are a critical factor in reducing the prevalence of such conflicts and to avoid the huge economic costs that they imply. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how major external shocks and policy reforms affect Bolivia’s ability to achieve pro-poor growth. Employing a recursive-dynamic CGE model, it considers three different scenarios: an optimistic baseline scenario; a more realistic scenario that accounts for two important negative external shocks (declining capital inflows and El Niño); and a scenario that captures the combined effect of the shocks and two major reform projects (development of the gas sector and deregulation of the urban labor market). It turns out that the shocks are likely to impair Bolivia’s medium-term development prospects, leading to marked increases in both urban and rural poverty. If the reform projects were implemented, the poverty increase caused by the shocks would be more than offset for urban households, but reinforced for rural households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses the experience of working in Bolivia in the field of child protection to discuss the usage of international contributions and cooperation in the implementation of child protection measures. The challenges and opportunities involved in the implementation of child protection policy and practice in Bolivia are discussed in the context of the realities faced in many countries of South America. The paper describes how a systemic approach was used to provoke change, to maximize the effectiveness of what resources and capabilities already existed and to promote continuing improvement in multidisciplinary cooperation. Where resources are not available for an integrated multisectorial approach dedicated to child abuse and neglect (CAN), leadership and capacity-building in this way may be used to enable practitioners to transform the challenges of implementation into opportunities for learning and better practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an account of the evolution of poverty and inequality during adjustment in Bolivia, covering the period 1985–99. It turns out that urban poverty declined somewhat after the initial stabilization phase that followed the hyperinflation in 1985. A similar evolution of per capita income suggests a positive impact of growth on urban poverty, although the correlation between the two variables is rather low in international perspective. Urban inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient does not exhibit a clear long-term trend upward or downward, but a rising premium for high-skilled workers indicates increasing disparities in the urban labour market. For rural areas, the scant evidence available points towards persistently high poverty levels and a widening rural–urban gap. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the World Bank’s conceptual framework to document the nature and scope of social protection policy and practice in Bolivia. It also assesses the manner in which social protection issues have been included in the Bolivian Government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). This highlights limitations in the existing framework, and provides the opportunity to recommend a number of measures that would make it a more comprehensive component of the PRSP. This is a preliminary review of a highly complex subject, which merits considerable further attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that, despite claims to the contrary, there has not been extensive, egalitarian reform in Bolivia since Evo Morales assumed the presidency in 2006. In order to explain agrarian processes in the country during the decade under Morales thus far (2006-2016), it examines the changing balance of agrarian class forces in Bolivian society and associated changes in the class composition of the ruling bloc between 2006 and 2010. It divides contestation over agrarian reform processes during this decade into two periods-one of insurgent contestation (2006-2009), and one of agro-capital-state alliance (2010-2016). The transformations in class alliances over these periods can be understood theoretically through Gramsci's concept of transformismo (transformism). In particular, this concept captures both the way in which leading layers of indigenous-peasant movements have been absorbed into the apparatuses of the state and thus decapitated, and the dialectic of transformation/restoration that characterizes Bolivia's ongoing 'process of change'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers often conceal or reveal parts of their identity to ensure the success of fieldwork. Yet, connection between researchers and research participants can now be maintained via social networking sites. This raises new questions about the ethics and practicalities of negotiating identity during and after fieldwork. The paper draws on a narrative ethnography of concealing my lesbian identity during and after ethnographic research in Bolivia. I demonstrate that in a socially mediated world the "curation" of researcher identity is no longer temporally and geographically bound to the periods and locales of fieldwork. Second, I argue that a researcher's decision to conceal elements of their identity may be informed by essentialist assumptions about research participants. Third, researchers may effectively colonise and silence research participants because they speak for them and remove any opportunity for participants to respond to the element of the researcher's identity being hidden, such as sexuality, class, or religion. Researchers often conceal parts of their identity during fieldwork. Yet, in a socially mediated world the "curation" of researcher identity is no longer temporally and geographically bound to the periods and locales of fieldwork. The decision to conceal elements of researcher identity may be informed by essentialist assumptions about participants, and concealing researcher identity silences research participants as only the researcher speaks for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inland fisheries are often complex, spatially dispersed, and seasonal. A lack of monitoring can result in unreliable or incomplete catch data, suggesting a role for assessment methods based on population size structure. This paper evaluates and compares empirical size‐based indicators and the length‐based spawning potential ratio model as candidate tools for assessing data‐limited commercial fisheries in inland systems. Case study applications are presented for a contrasting set of important fisheries in the Amazon Basin (Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru), the Tonlé Sap River (Cambodia), Paraná River (Argentina), and Bayano Reservoir (Panama). These case studies were selected to explore the effects on assessment of factors including lack of life history information, spatial separation of life history stages, modality in population size structure of floodplain river fish, and fishing gear selectivity. An international workshop was organized to bring together experts from the study systems and elsewhere to discuss the results, and to highlight potential issues and caveats. It was concluded that length‐based models may work well in cases where size‐selective gears are used to target a few larger species with reliable life history parameter estimates. Empirical surveillance indicators are more flexible for integrating quantitative data with local expert knowledge in common data‐poor situations. In general, size‐based assessment can provide guidance for the sustainable management of target species in diverse inland fisheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the active re-construction of indigenous identities within the Plurinational State of Bolivia through the case study of a resource conflict that arose with the government's announcement of its intention to build a road through a national park and indigenous territory, the Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure ( TIPNIS; Indigenous Territory and Isiboro Sécure National Park). Ethnographic fieldwork shows that both the state and the lowland indigenous movement have fashioned essentialised understandings of an indigenous identity linked to the environment in order to legitimise competing resource sovereignty claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents a commentary on the findings of a research which investigated land degradation in three areas of the Andean valleys in the Department of Chuquisaca, Bolivia. The author suggests that the evidence of an increase in degradation in the region during the past 40 years is unconvincing. The author also believes that a possible link with population increase is inconclusive. The author states that the research is potentially valuable for its use of data based on farmer consultation.

Motivation: How can poorer developing countries escape the vicious circle in which, because the state is fragile, they cannot raise sufficient public revenue to be able to finance development, leading to the persistence of poverty and state fragility? We explore a new approach to this problem, which we call progressive fiscal contracts, in which government earmarks the proceeds of particular taxes to be spent on forms of expenditure which will have widespread benefits for lower income groups, such as health, education and social protection. Taxpayers are thus offered a contractual relationship with government (better‐targeted delivery of public services in return for tax payments) in place of a coercive one (simply being ordered to pay taxes, with nothing being offered in exchange). We seek to examine whether this kind of contractual approach offers a way forward for developing countries. Purpose: Across five countries (Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Ghana and Zambia) between 2000 and 2015, we seek to find out whether tax yields have improved following the introduction of progressive fiscal contracts, whether conflict and poverty have declined, and whether there have been countervailing costs in terms of reduced efficiency. We also examine the experience of two countries (Brazil and Chile) where there is no formal earmarking but government has encouraged the public to think of particular taxes as being associated with particular forms of expenditure. Approach and methods: We assess the impact of changes in tax yields, welfare indicators and conflict indicators by means of panel‐data regressions, tabular comparisons and, in Bolivia, qualitative interviews. Changes in efficiency are assessed through examination of changes in tax structure. Findings: Across all of the countries surveyed, the introduction of progressive fiscal contracts has been associated with a reduction in headcount poverty between 2000 and 2015, and in Bolivia our qualitative evidence suggests that the relationship can be seen as a causal one. In three cases out of five (Ghana, Bolivia and Ecuador) tax yields have increased, and in two (Bolivia and Ecuador) there was a significant reduction in political violence. In the Latin American cases examined, but not the African ones, there was a shift from royalty‐based taxation to income‐based taxation of natural resources, suggesting the likelihood of an improvement in efficiency over the period in those countries only. In these cases, the stereotypical view that progressive fiscal contracts improve equity at the expense of efficiency is contradicted. Policy implications (or conclusions): Progressive fiscal contracts, which originated as a device for making tax payments more palatable by offering social benefits in return, show promise as an innovative strategy for boosting tax ratios, reducing political violence and reducing poverty, which deserves further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity conservation is a complex and transdisciplinary problem that requires engagement and cooperation among scientific, societal, economic, and political institutions. However, historical approaches have often failed to bring together and address the needs of all relevant stakeholders in decision‐making processes. The Tropical Andes, a biodiversity hotspot where conservation efforts often conflict with socioeconomic issues and policies that prioritize economic development, provides an ideal model to develop and implement more effective approaches. In this study, we present a co‐design approach that mainstreams and improves the flow of biodiversity information in the Tropical Andes, while creating tailored outputs that meet the needs of economic and societal stakeholders. We employed a consultative process that brought together biodiversity information users and producers at the local, national, and regional levels through a combination of surveys and workshops. This approach identified priority needs and limitations of the flow of biodiversity information in the region, which led to the co‐design of user‐relevant biodiversity indicators. By leveraging the existing capacities of biodiversity information users and producers, we were able to co‐design multiple biodiversity indicators and prioritize two for full implementation ensuring that the data was findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable based on the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles. This approach helped address limitations that were identified in the stakeholder engagement process, including gaps in data availability and the need for more accessible biodiversity information. Additionally, capacity‐building workshops were incorporated for all producers of biodiversity information involved, which aimed to not only improve the current flow of biodiversity information in the region but also facilitate its future sustainability. Our approach can serve as a valuable blueprint for mainstreaming biodiversity information and making it more inclusive in the future, especially considering the diverse worldviews, values, and knowledge systems between science, policy, and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds to the challenge to conceptualize political activity through temporal as well as spatial perspectives, and does so by means of a discussion of the different temporalities experienced by union and social movement activists. It is based on fieldwork with activists from two public sector workers' unions in Buenos Aires and residents and street vendors' organizations in the city of El Alto, Bolivia. I discuss two coexisting temporalities, or social experiences of time (Munn): 'historical time', a sense of emplacement within a historical narrative of political action that looks back to the past and to illustrious ancestors and forwards to an imagined set of possibilities for the future; and 'attritional time', one of constant protest or negotiation, the continuance of the day to day of political life when there is no resolution in sight to a particular conflict or problem, coupled occasionally with a dramatization of what can become quite banal over time. Finally, I discuss a kind of event-based mediation between different temporalities, specifically revolution as a clash or meeting of attritional time and historical time, coexisting but separately experienced temporalities. This mediation involves both the revolutionary actions themselves and the practices of hailing, both contemporaneous and retrospective, which include scholarly research as well as other forms of social commentary. I suggest that this hailing might be in part enacted through a promise or assertion of discontinuity and rupture in the flow of time (Harris), even when events may not have been experienced as such at the time itself. Thus, different social experiences of time meet in a politics of time, to co-construct kairos, or revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the determinants of primary school enrolment, attendance, and child labour in Bolivia from 1999 to 2007, and attempts to analyse the interactions among these decisions over time. Although enrolment rates show a significant improvement, a high proportion of children do not attend school. The empirical results reveal that the increase in enrolment is led by indigenous children and those living in urban areas. Moreover, contrary to common belief, being extremely poor and indigenous are the main determinants of school attendance. Finally, although extremely poor children increased their school attendance, there was no reduction in child labour, which remains a relevant issue in Bolivia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agrarian reform cannot be limited to a linear process of land distribution. It involves a societal restructuration that affects power relations, multi-level governance structures, the (re)spatialization of juridical legitimacy and symbolic boundaries between sociocultural groups (ethnicity). This paper analyses the consequences of the major Bolivian agrarian reforms of 1953, 1996 and 2006 for the current process of setting up the 'plurinational' state under the government of Evo Morales. Using a historical and sociopolitical approach, we show that the ethnically differentiated devolution of individual and collective tenure rights has resulted in an institutional segmentation along ethnic boundaries that gives rise to a growing polarization between the two socially constructed categories of indigenous people and peasants. This institutional segmentation is not limited to agrarian questions but also affects other domains, such as political processes related to territorial autonomies. The current government is trying to maintain a neutral position by giving priority to large-scale national programmes of economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. In a recent paper, we analysed the effects of climate, soil and logging disturbance on tree and forest growth (Toledo et al. 2011a). We took advantage of one of the largest data sets in the Neotropics, consisting of 165 1-ha plots and over 62 000 trees distributed over an area of c. 160 000 km2, across large environmental gradients in lowland Bolivia. The main findings were that climate was the strongest driver of spatial variation in tree growth, whereas soils had only a modest effect on growth and that the effect of logging disappeared after a few years. 2. Ferry et al. (2012) suggest that we underestimated the disturbance effects on growth because of a supposedly wrong coding of Time After Logging (TAL) for unlogged plots. Although we have good biological reasons why we coded TAL like we did, we checked Ferry et al.'s suggestions for recoding and found no differences in variables that significantly explained tree and forest growth. We agree, however, that for future research, it is important to go beyond simple descriptors such as time after logging and basal area logged, to better describe the variation in logging impact found in areas under forest management. 3. Ferry et al. claim that we did not define basal area growth properly. We believe this is a semantic issue, as we clearly defined basal area growth as the net change in basal area. This net basal area change in Bolivian forests is indeed relatively high compared to other studies, which may be attributed to the higher soil fertility and biogeographic differences in species composition and their traits. 4. Synthesis. Many apparent discrepancies in the ecological literature arise because tropical forest ecologists tend to see the world from the perspective of their 'own' forest (despite clear biogeographic differences) and try to capture the same ecological processes using different variables and measurement protocols. To advance our understanding and go beyond single-case studies, we need to assemble large databases, quantify forest dynamics and disturbances in similar ways, be aware of differences among forests and analyse environmental dose-response curves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The village banking approach to microfinance aims to empower women by giving them responsibility for and control over certain aspects of the intervention. This paper explores how women members negotiate participation in the bank and analyses the relationship between responsibility, risk and empowerment. It is based on an ethnographic study in Luribay, Bolivia where the microfinance institution Credit with Rural Education has been operating since 2000. The village bank is placed in the context of gender relations in Luribay and ideas of risk, responsibility and empowerment explored in that context. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1999, poor countries that want to qualify for concessionary IMF loans and debt relief must elaborate and implement Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. Donors claim that the PRSP approach will increase aid effectiveness since PRSPs will enhance broad country ownership and lead to better 'partnership' with donors, implying more donor co-ordination under government leadership. By examining the experiences of Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua, this article finds that the results are disappointing. The article also shows that, by emphasising rational planning and ignoring politics, the PRSP approach has unintended and sometimes harmful consequences. This leads to recommendations for changes of the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]