Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Cochabamba (Bolivia) – Social conditions'

Neighbourhood trade-stores, or small scale retail outlets specialising in domestic provisions sold in small quantities, are common features of residential landscapes in developing countries. While these shops are fixtures in the everyday micro-geographies of urban places, little is known as to how they are economically and socially bound up with the neighbourhoods in which they are situated and, in turn, how these linkages influence the day-to-day life circumstances of local people. Through such a local-level investigation utilising multiple qualitative methods, I examine the intra-neighbourhood economic and social roles of small trade-stores in an urban neighbourhood in Cochabamba, Bolivia. My analysis reveals that trade-stores were a key influence on the welfare of neighbourhood residents. Economically, these shops functioned as safeguards for family economies by providing multidimensional material support. Socially, trade-stores acted as mechanisms for informal social control, nodes of local information exchange, and sources of local social opportunities and social support.

Background: The increase in the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) is considered one of the most important public health problems worldwide and especially in Latin American (LA) countries. Although the systematic surveillance of chronic diseases and their risk factors has been recommended, Bolivia has not yet implemented a national strategy to collect and monitor CVRF information. Evidence from previous studies in Bolivia and other Latin American countries has suggested that CVRFs affect women more than men and mestizos more than indigenous people. However, a more accurate and comprehensive picture of the CVRF situation and how ethnicity and gender intersect to affect CVRFs is dearly needed to support the development of health policies to improve population health and reduce inequalities. Objective: to estimate the distribution of CVRFs and to examine intersectional in equalities in Cochabamba – Bolivia in order to provide useful information for public health practice and decision making. The specific objectives are: i) to estimate the prevalence of preventable risk factors associated with CVDs and ii) to assess and explain obesity inequalities in the intersectional spaces of ethnicity and gender. Methods: The data collection procedure was based on the Pan-American version (V2.0) of the WHO STEPS approach adapted to the Bolivian context. Between 2015 and 2016, 10,754 individuals aged over 18 years old were surveyed. The two first stages of the STEPS approach were conducted: a) Step 1 consisted of the application of a questionnaire to collect demographic and lifestyle data; b) Step 2 involved taking measurements of height, weight, blood pressure, and waist circumference of the participants. To achieve objective 1, the prevalence of relevant behavioural risk factors and anthropometric measures were calculated, and then odds ratios/prevalence ratios were estimated for each CVRF, both with crude and adjusted regression models. Regarding objective 2, an intersectionality approach based on the method suggested by Jackson et al. (67) was used to analyse the ethnic and gender inequalities in obesity. Gender and ethnicity information were combined to form four mutually exclusive intersectional positions: i) the dually disadvantaged group of indigenous women; ii) the dually advantaged group of mestizo men; and the singly disadvantaged groups of iii) indigenous men and iv) mestizo women. Joint and excess intersectional disparities in abdominal obesity were estimated as absolute prevalence differences between binary groups, using binomial regression models. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition was applied to estimate the contributions of explanatory factors underlying the observed intersectional disparities. Main findings: Our findings revealed that Cochabamba had a high prevalence of CVRFs, with significant variations among the different socio-demographic groups. Indigenous populations and those living in the Andean region showed, in general, a lower prevalence for most of the risk factors evaluated. The prevalence of behavioural risk factors were: current smoking (11.6%); current alcohol consumption (42.76%); low consumption of fruits and vegetables (76.73%); and low level of physical activity (64.77%). The prevalence of metabolic risk factors evaluated were: being overweight (35.84%); obesity (20.49%); abdominal obesity (54.13%); and raised blood pressure (17.5%). It is important to highlight that 40.7% of participants had four or more CVRFs simultaneously. Dually and singly disadvantaged groups (indigenous women, indigenous men, and mestizo women) were less obese than the dually advantaged group (mestizomen). The joint disparity showed that the obesity prevalence was 7.26 percentage points higher in the doubly advantaged mestizo men (MM) than in the doubly disadvantaged indigenous women (IW). Mestizo men (MM) had an obesity prevalence of 4.30 percentage points higher than mestizo women (MW) and 9.18 percentage points higher than indigenous men (IM). The resulting excess intersectional disparity was 6.22 percentage points, representing -86 percentage points of the joint disparity. The lower prevalence of obesity in the doubly disadvantaged group of indigenous women (7.26 percentage points) was mainly due to ethnic differences alone. However, they had higher obesity than expected when considering both genders alone and ethnicity alone. Health behaviours were important factors in explaining the intersectional inequalities, while differences in socioeconomic and demographic factors played less important roles. Conclusion: The prevalence of all CVRFs in Cochabamba was high, and nearly two-thirds of the population reported two or more risk factors simultaneously. The intersectional disparities illustrate that abdominal obesity is not distributed according to expected patterns of structural disadvantages in the intersectional spaces of ethnicity and gender in Bolivia. A high social advantage was related to higher rates of abdominal obesity, with health behaviours as the most important factors explaining the observed inequalities. The information generated by this study provides evidence for health policymakers at the regional level and a baseline data for department-wide action plans to carry out specific interventionsin the population and on individual levels.

This thesis investigates the emergence of an indigenous middle class between 1975 and 2010 in Bolivia - a country characterized by poor and unstable long-term economic growth, high inequality, and enduring ethnic and class cleavages. The study takes a two-tiered approach. It focuses first on tracing the emergence of the middle class by highlighting the main drivers of socio-economic improvement for individuals. Based on a longitudinal examination of a Socio-Economic Index (SEI) - upon which the middle class is operationally defined in this thesis - I explain the emergence of the middle class as the result of two distinct but interconnected processes: (i) a massive urbanization process that reached a peak in the mid-1980s, which brought individuals closer to areas favoured by state policies; and (ii) an institutional change in the mid-1990s, consisting of a new national framework that allocated resources more efficiently throughout the country. In addition, my analysis uncovers the different occupational trajectories that middle-class individuals followed to gain access to the new structure of opportunities and to prosper and become part of the middle class. Based on inter- and intra-generational analyses of occupational mobility, I find that in a context of an over supply of labour and with limited skills and economic capital, migrants found the means to thrive socially and economically in commerce, transport, and construction activities. Secondly, I explore the extent to which the emergence of the new middle class has opened-up opportunities for indigenous peoples. I conduct a periodic headcount of indigeneity based on spoken languages (indigenous and/or Spanish) and self-ascription to indigenous groups. Two messages emerge from this exercise. First, the new middle class has provided opportunities for individuals who are monolingual in indigenous languages, whether they ascribe themselves or not to an indigenous group. Second, individuals' ethnic identities become fuzzier as they move into the middle class. This is revealed by indigenous language loss and a significant decrease in self-ascription that happened in a markedly stratified manner over just ten years. I tackle the intricacies of middle-class ethnic identity by drawing on a social identity conceptual framework that allows me to integrate synergistically the discussions on class, ethnicity, and modernization. By approaching social identities through the analysis of differentiated lifestyles, I find that new middle-class individuals have hybrid and segmented identities. That is, individuals combine indigenous/traditional and modern forms of living that vary according to their socio-economic level, but do not necessarily move towards cultural assimilation. I contend that the creation of new status symbols and forms of recognition based on indigenous idiosyncrasies in the new middle class constitutes a categorical break with historical, ethnic-based forms of social, economic, and cultural exclusion and discrimination. In summary, this thesis advances the conceptualization and understanding of the middle class, contributing to the burgeoning literature on emerging middle classes in developing countries by offering a more complex picture of its expansion and identity construction.

This dissertation studies the origin of new organisational forms. It focuses on organisations that challenge existing institutional boundaries, specifically the boundaries between for profit and not for profit providers of financial services. It builds on research on the origins of the microfinance industry in Bolivia; and particularly on the creation and development of BancoSol and Los Andes, the two pioneering organisations. This research involved in-depth interviews and analysis of industry-specific documents and newspaper files.
The study builds on three research streams: collective strategy, institutional theory, and evolutionary entrepreneurship. It proposes an overarching process-model that bridges these three bodies of work and advances our understanding of three key dynamics in the creation of new organisational forms: (1) the combination of hitherto unconnected principles and practices; (2) the leverage of support and acceptance for new organisational forms; and (3) the development of endurance for the new form.
The study argues that these three dynamics occur within a nonlinear process that includes three overlying stages. The first stage involves the creation of an entrepreneurial team to launch the organisations. This team includes individuals from fields with divergent principles and practices (e.g. for profit and not for profit). The second stage involves negotiations with institutional actors to leverage support and acceptance for the novel organisational form. The third stage involves decisions, actions, and interactions that promote internal coalescence and defend the organisations from external challenges. I have labeled this process-model social entrepreneurship. The process is predominantly social as the three dynamics are defined by the social assets and relations of actors. It is predominantly entrepreneurial as it destroys existing boundaries across fields and generates an enduring combination of principles and practices previously unconnected.

Depuis leur apparition dans les années 1950, les syndicats paysans boliviens sont des acteurs politiques importants. A partir des années 1980 les syndicats de producteurs de feuilles de coca du Chapare sont les plus mobilisés d'entre eux. Pour comprendre leur pouvoir de mobilisation, et l'émergence d'une élite syndicale cocalera, il faut prendre en compte le fait que les producteurs constituent une population captive qui ne peut se soustraire aux services des syndicats. Cette dépendance accentue le corporatisme de l'organisation et renforce le pouvoir des dirigeants. Mais bien entendu il faut aussi restituer les syndicats dans le contexte politique et économique de l'époque, et analyser leurs interactions avec les appareils d'état, les autres forces syndicales, notamment ouvrières, les partis politiques de gauche et les organisations non gouvernementales nationales et internationales

This thesis investigates women’s political and organizational participation in the changing process and new political context in Bolivia. Different levels of women’s positioning are examined through interviews with actors in Cochabamba, complete with observations, literature and local text-documents. The discourse of women's participation versus the actual practice of women’s decision making is taken under account. The struggle of Bolivian feminists indicates challenges of dominant patriarchal ideologies and has been named ‘postcolonial feminism’. Struggles are directed against the postcolonial state as well as against the western interests that contributes to its postcolonial status. Women’s experienced participation is shown to be very diverse, depending on their identities of class and ethnicity as well as their different location in the rural areas and in the city of the department of Cochabamba. There have been important advances achieved by women’s movements and organizations in order to stress equality between men and women, but much of the advances are still rhetorical, yet not facing legitimate implementation. There is a lack of implementation of gender issues in the government and institutions. Social movements and critics from civil society are therefore crucial in its attempt to visualize and stress the plurality of social conditions. The challenge of different women's organizations is to create and build consensus from the recognition of this diversity. In the process towards welfare and harmony in Bolivia the women and their strength constitutes a fundamental part. They have introduced new human qualities in the public sphere, raising the values associated to ‘motherhood’ as central for shaping the wider order of political community.

The research work addresses the changes that occurred in the valley and the Yungas of Cochabamba during the Inka Horizon (1400-1538 AC) while introducing in an exploratory way, the Late Intermediate (1100-1400 AC) and the Middle Horizon (400-1100 AC) periods. In theoretical terms, we emphasize the local human agency (individual and social) as important elements in order to understand the processes of social change. We assume that the complex relational webs generated by the Inka presence in the valleys and the Yungas appear as "traces" in the space (as constructed landscapes: social, agro-hydrological, sacral, administrative, war landscapes etc.) that can be seized from two sources, archaeological and historical, that are seen as complementing each other.

We carried out two case studies in the Yungas of Tablas Monte and Inkachaca /Paracti. In both areas, previously unknown to Bolivian archaeology, we examined the impact of the Inka. Based upon material evidence, such as the sophisticated agro-hydrological system sustained by an intensive use of the stone as well as documentary data, we discuss the presence of warrior groups, i.e. that the arrival of the Inka had a relative impact in this area.

In April 2003, Peru’s cocaleros broke into the national spotlight by mobilising a six thousandstrong March of Sacrifice from their coca-producing valleys to the capital city of Lima. In 2006, cocalero leaders ascended to several political positions at the municipal and national level. However, their political impact has been limited and divisions amongst coca-producing valleys have prevented cocaleros from articulating a unified agenda on the coca issue itself, let alone on wider issues. The experience of Bolivia’s cocaleros presents a very different picture. In 2005, cocalero leader Evo Morales was elected president with the highest margin of victory in the country’s electoral history. He was re-elected in 2009 by a greater margin. Morales and his political party mobilised a broad coalition as they developed an identity of ‘excluded’ that challenged Bolivia’s unrepresentative democracy, neoliberal economic model and relationship with the United States. How do we explain the political ascent of these unprecedented actors that stand on the border of illegality? Why has the empowerment and impact of these actors on their national political landscapes varied so significantly? This work aims to explain the different experiences of the Bolivian and Peruvian cocaleros in gaining political empowerment through contentious action that originated in defence of coca—an issue that is both de-legitimising and divisive. This work presents the political ascent of these actors as cases of identity-formation. It argues that their ability to construct identities that deterred disunity, legitimised their struggle and broadened their appeal determined their degree of political empowerment. Furthermore, it reveals how contentious interactions—bound by the context in which they unfolded—distinctly shaped each case’s identity-formation processes. In Peru, the imposed identity of ‘illegitimate’ weakened the identity of ‘cocalero’ and generated disunity, isolation and a limited political impact. In Bolivia, the identities of ‘syndicalist’ and ‘excluded’ strengthened the identity of ‘cocalero’ and engendered unity, alliance formation and a significant political impact.

With the same force that human activities accelerate and amplify change in the biosphere, human agency can play a critical role in influencing future trajectories. However, managing increasingly complex problems is becoming ever more challenging. Among other things, it requires a systemic thinking about the future to anticipate how intertwined drivers may respond to rapid change. This thesis addresses such challenge in the context of contemporary wildfires, which are becoming increasingly complex to manage and a growing global concern. The study adopted a novel approach (Chapter 3) to study wildfire as a complex social-ecological system. The overarching aim is to generate insights into wildfire causes, effects and feedbacks to anticipate future wildfire risk and inform management strategies that can prevent potential impacts. I combine different disciplinary lenses, multiple spatial scales of analysis and participatory methods to analyse wildfire dynamics in the Chiquitania region, located in the Department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, at the southern edge of Amazonia. This region has a unique tropical dry forest that is susceptible to changes in climate and fire regimes, and a rapidly expanding agricultural frontier. During the recent 2010 drought, large wildfires affected this region intensifying public concern about potential 'mega-fires', particularly given predictions of more extreme seasonality in the future. The first research paper of this thesis (Chapter 4) evaluates the effects of wildfire recurrence on the forests of the Chiquitania using ecological surveys. In addition to significant biomass loss, the observed patterns in species abundance and dominance suggest that the forests respond to recurrent fires through a shift in tree species composition, with fire-tolerant species becoming more dominant. The second research paper (Chapter 5) analyses future wildfire risk in the Chiquitania region using fuzzy cognitive mapping. This conceptual modelling approach engaged different actor groups in the region to integrate their perspectives of the regional wildfire dynamics. Semi-structured interviews informed the scenario assumptions which considered failure to respond in time to wildfire risk, as well as implementation of alternative management strategies. Unexpectedly, the fire management strategy showed less trade-offs between wildfire risk reduction and production compared to the fire suppression strategy. The high vulnerability of the agricultural production to wildfire risk has implications for local communities that largely depend on agriculture for subsistence if future climatic conditions become drier. The third research chapter (Chapter 6) uses interviews and focus group discussions to analyse how different forms of knowledge and perceptions of fire relate to prevalent wildfire risk strategies in the Chiquitania. The analysis reveals that strategies are in tension between two conflicting narratives and understandings of fire. On this basis, a deliberation process is proposed with the potential to integrate opposing views into more inclusive and collective solutions to manage wildfire risk within a reflexive governance framework. The fourth research paper (Chapter 7) complements the above ground-based studies with a regional assessment of wildfire risk based on remotely sensed land cover, anthropogenic and climatic data. Maximum entropy was used as a probabilistic modelling approach to simulate future wildfire risk scenarios driven by different development trajectories, and assuming changing climatic conditions. Important determinants of wildfire risk were climate, road development, deforestation and density of human settlements. Positive feedbacks between rapid frontier expansion and drought conditions almost doubled potential biomass loss compared to estimates in the 2010 drought. Land used for agriculture and cattle ranching showed particularly high levels of wildfire risk, with serious implications for the subsistence and economy in the Chiquitania if the agricultural frontier is expanded at an accelerated rate. The combination of new findings and modelling tools developed in this thesis are relevant to inform wildfire risk management decisions in the Chiquitania. The timing is fitting as the regional government of Santa Cruz is developing a ten-year programme to address increased wildfire risk at the time of thesis submission, and the recently launched Regional Fire Platform promotes dialogue about possible solutions. More broadly, the approach to study wildfire as a social-ecological system has proven extremely useful to generate insights into different facets of a complex problem that is becoming a major concern in most of Amazonia and globally. This thesis generates important theoretical and practical contributions to the study of social-ecological systems, and provides a concrete example of how increasingly complex problems can be anticipated and managed under climate change and rapidly changing conditions with a more integrated and socially inclusive approach that can inform adaptation decisions for more sustainable futures.

This thesis explores Tsimane understandings and creations of varying forms of sociality. Each chapter addresses different but related issues concerning sociality. Fieldwork was carried out in three riverine settlements over the period from December 1991 to August 1994. The thesis shows that sociality is created and perpetuated by individuals as a processual endeavour, and does not amount to a tangible structure predicated upon fixed social relationships. Community in a physically bound sense is not found amongst the Tsimanes. Given forms of sociality are shown to rest more upon an appropriateness or inappropriateness of mood or affectivity. These are created and effected by subtle details of each individual’s presence amongst others. Social presence is understood by the Tsimanes as both potentially nurturant and predatory. Tsimanes are explicit about their ideas of preferred and abhorred social presence and behaviour of human and non-human others. This thesis explores ways in which such ideas are articulated to create a discourse on social ethics. A Tsimane aesthetics of social living carries with it practical implications for creating and perpetuating forms of sociality. An underlying theme of the thesis is one of mobility and the oscillating nature of Tsimane movements between different groups of kin and affines, and between moods and forms of sociality. I demonstrate that the high value placed by the Tsimanes upon movement, and the enjoyment they experience from it, most efficiently enable the achievement of correct social existence. A lack of knowledge and intention, ultimately resulting in illness and death, are principally deemed to occur as a result of immobility.

There have been a number of legal reforms in Bolivia since the first indigenous president, Evo Morales, came to power in 2006. In 2009 a New Constitution was enacted which included rights for women and expanded legal recognition of indigenous groups. In 2013, in order to address rising rates of violence against women, Law 348 to Guarantee Women a Life Free from Violence was established. Yet what meaning these legal changes have for Bolivian women is still unknown. This thesis explores Bolivian women's legal consciousness and subjectivities in the context of these changes, particularly in relation to law concerning violence. Twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in the city of La Paz, Bolivia, between October 2014 and October 2015. Participant observation in a women's centre was the main field site, which offered the opportunities to gather women's life stories and explore women's narratives of the law. This was further supplemented with interviews with Civil Society Organisations and government in order to add different perspectives and further map the social structures of society that both constrain and enable meaning-making. This socio-legal ethnography presents women's engagements with the law, and offers insights into women's lived experiences of accessing justice and claiming rights, both directly and indirectly, as well as the influence that legality has on women's legal subjectivity and their sense of self. Doing so provides a narrative of Bolivian women's legal consciousness and reveals the meaning that law has for women in their everyday lives. Law works to shape the way they view themselves and their experiences as they engage with the processes of accessing justice. It can be concluded that law is a meaningful yet often contradictory presence in Bolivian women's everyday lives.

The thesis is a study of a Guaraní community (comunidad) situated in the Department of Santa Cruz in the southeastern lowlands of Bolivia. The thesis uses the concept of ‘comunidad’ as a focus of investigation. While this concept is one that is familiar and firmly embedded in contemporary discourses throughout Bolivia, the meanings which different people and interest groups attach to it and the purposes which they ascribe to it are far from unanimous. Apart from the physical and legal entity, comprising a group of people, the land on which they live, and the legal title for its ownership, a comunidad is a multifaceted and multilayered complex of diverging and sometimes competing ideas, desires and agendas. Questioning the concept of ‘comunidad’ in this way opens up new perspectives on what people are doing and why that could easily be overlooked in continuing to assume that we know what we are talking about when talking about a ‘comunidad indígena’ in Bolivia today. The thesis explores the case of Cañón de Segura by eliciting and bringing together the various claims and perspectives that impact on the lives of its inhabitants (comunarios). Starting with a historical overview to situate the comunidad within Bolivian and Guaraní history, the thesis moves into an ethnographic discussion of the comunarios’ own perceptions and meanings of ‘comunidad’, followed by an exploration of various outsiders’ perspectives on the same topic that impact on the comunarios’ lives in different ways. The aim of the thesis is to illustrate the overlap and entanglements between these different positions in order to show how the different perspectives on the meaning and purpose of a Guaraní ‘comunidad’ all contribute to shape the actual realities of people’s lives ‘on the ground’.

Latin America is in a political crisis, yet Bolivia is still widely recognized as a beacon of hope for progressive change. The radical movements at the beginning of the 21st century against neoliberalism that paved the road for the election of Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, beckoned a change from colonial rule towards a more just society. Paradoxically, in pursuing progress through economic growth, the Bolivian state led by President Morales has replicated the colonial division of labor through a development model known as neo-extractivism. Deeply rooted tensions have also emerged between indigenous communities and the Bolivian state due to the latter's zealous economic bond with the extractivist sector. Although these paradoxes have received significant attention, one substantial aspect that remains underexplored and undertheorized is how such tensions affect socio-political relations at the intersections of class, race and gender where indigenous women in Bolivia occupy a unique position. To address this research gap, this qualitative study poses the following research questions: 1. How does neo-extractivism affect the lives of indigenous women? 2. How does the state shape relations between neo-extractivism and indigenous women? 3. How do indigenous women organize to challenge the impact of state-led extractivism on their lives and their communities? To answer these questions, I conducted a multi-sited ethnographic study between October 2017 and June 2018 in Oruro, Bolivia, an area that is heavily affected by mining contamination. By analyzing processes of social reproduction, I argue that neo-extractivism leads to water contamination and water scarcity, becoming the epicenter of the deterioration of subsistence agriculture and the dispossession of indigenous ways of life. Because indigenous women are subsistence producers and social reproducers whose activities depend on water, the dispossession of water has a dire effect on them, which demonstrates how capitalism relies on and exacerbates neo-colonial and patriarchal relations. To tame dissent to these contradictions, the Bolivian and self-proclaimed "indigenist state" defines and politicizes ethnicity in order to build a national identity based on indigeneity. This state-led ethnic inclusion, however, simultaneously produces class exclusions of indigenous campesinxs (peasants) who are not fully engaged in market relations. In contrast to the government's inclusive but rigidly-defined indigeneity, indigenous communities embrace a fluid and dual indigeneity: one that is connected to territories, yet also independent from them; a rooted indigeneity based on the praxis of what it means to be indigenous. Indigenous women and their communities embrace this fluid and rooted indigeneity to build alliances across gender, ethnic, and geographic lines to organize against neo-extractivism. Moreover, the daily responsibilities of social reproduction within the context of subsistence agriculture, which are embedded in Andean epistemes of reciprocity, duality, and complementarity, have allowed indigenous women to build solidarity networks that keep the social fabric within, and between, communities alive. These solidarity networks are sites of everyday resistances that represent a threat and an alternative to capitalist, colonial and patriarchal mandates.

Trois agglomérations majeures caractérisent le système territorial bolivien en concentrant près de la moitié de la population et des emplois nationaux. Ce constat amène à s'interroger sur le rôle économique de cette tripolarisation territoriale face au succès économique de Potosi et Tarija, territoires riches en ressources naturelles. Dans ce travail, nous examinons l'actuelle tripolarisation par l'étude de l'histoire économique de l'émergence de ces trois pôles, puis en examinant les données économiques les plus récentes, de manière à expliquer les forces et les faiblesses de ce tripôle. Chacun des pôles se localise dans un contexte géographique original. La Paz où siège le gouvernement se situe dans la région montagneuse des hauts plateaux à l'Ouest. Santa Cruz, à environ 900 km de La Paz, se localise à l'Est, au centre des plaines amazoniennes. Cochabamba se situe entre les deux, dans les vallées intermédiaires du centre. Cette tripolarisation est relativement récente : la hiérarchie urbaine, longtemps dominée par une ville primatiale n'a donné une configuration tripolaire qu'au cours du dernier demi-siècle. La situation actuelle résulte en partie du cadre particulier de l'émergence du tripôle, liée aux territoires disposant des ressources naturelles ; l'analyse est conduite à partir d'indicateurs d'activité économique et du rôle international de ces territoires. L'approche économique, combinée avec des éléments géographiques, démographiques, historiques, politiques et de développement humain, permet de mettre à jour deux logiques distinctes, mais qui se complètent d'une manière originale : une forme de domination territoriale du tripôle La Paz - Cochabamba - Santa Cruz, à la fois permise et fragilisée par le rôle clé de l'exploitation des richesses naturelles de Potosi et Tarija