Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples Bolivia Bolivia Bolivia United States'

The following work is the culmination of a research process undertaken between December 1995 and September 1997 in various sites throughout Bolivia. Although the research process itself will be outlined more thoroughly in chapter 4 it would be useful to initially clarify a few key points as to the processes of fieldwork which resulted in the analyses presented in this thesis. The research process can be viewed in three phases. Phase I was undertaken in La Paz and Cochabamba between December 1995 and February 1996 by myself, Professor David Booth, then working at the University of Hull, and Charlotta Widmark representing the University of Stockholm. Phase II was conducted between May and September 1996 and involved a total of 14 Bolivian researchers working in four teams, with myself, Booth and Widmark. During this second phase we conducted fieldwork in four rural areas: the Amazonian region of Moxos, Corque on the Altiplano, Independencia in the High Andes and Puerto Villerroel in the coca-growing region of El Chapare. I worked in each of these areas except Corque on the Altiplano. Both phases I and II were commissioned and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). Phases I and II aimed to provide an initial appraisal of the process of democratisation in Bolivia, focusing in particular upon: • the coherence and practicality of the institutional reforms (decentralisation and popular participation) given the principal constraints on their operation; • the interpretation of, and responses to, 'democratisation' among women and men in poor communities, including the cultural ramifications and relations to previously existing representative institutions at various levels; • the effectiveness of the changes in improving the position of formerly disempowered groups and social categories, including Amerindian minorities and women; • any positive or negative interactions with objects of government policy and SIDA support, including poverty reduction, gender equality and educational reform; • the possible design of appropriate quantitative or qualitative indicators suitable for monitoring the progress of democratisation at the regional, provincial and community levels in Bolivia, bearing in mind the specific social and cultural conditions of the country. Phase III, the aims of which are outlined below, involved a further eight months of independent research conducted in the urban centre of Cochabamba between February and September, 1997. This was purely doctoral research and was self-funded and which I carried out alone and independently of the SIDA study. The following work is, however, based upon the findings and experiences resulting from all three phases of the research.

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Western Hemisphere)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2010.
Thesis Advisor(s): Jaskoski, Maiah ; Second Reader: Trinkunas, Harold A. "June 2010." Description based on title screen as viewed on July 13, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Bolivia, Ecuador, indigenous, hydrocarbon, mobilization Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-99).

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.

Evo Morales became Latin Americas first indigenous president in 2005. Morales praised the indigenous peoples, the indigenous movements and aimed at ending their political marginalization in Bolivia. However, this politicization and framing of indigenous identity and rights was later turned into his disadvantage. In 2011, Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Eastern Bolivia (CIDOB) decided to mobilize against the government's decision to build a highway through Isiboro Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS), where three of the indigenous groups represented by CIDOB lives. The decision was taken without consolidation with the population living in the area. In this study Robert D. Benford and David A. Snow's theoretical framework concerning framing processes and social movements are used to analyze CIDOBs collective action framing of their indigenous identity and rights in their mobilization in the TIPNIS conflict. In the result, it became evident that CIDOB used their indigenous identity and rights in different framing strategies including master frames, frame alignment processes, diagnostic, and prognostic framing.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2006.
Title from first page of PDF file (viewed September 21, 2006). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 493-512).

Over two billion people are currently living in poverty (less than $2 a day) around the world. 15 percent of this group is of indigenous backgrounds. Similar to the overall composition of the world, 10 percent of Latin America’s population is indigenous, yet one quarter is living on less than $2 a day. Approximately forty years ago the modern day microfinance movement began in Bangladesh and has since spread throughout the world. Microfinance strives to provide financial services to those who do not have access to the traditional financial sector. Making capital available helps alleviate poverty by providing the poor with credit and other financial services that can help generate income through smart investments. Bolivia and Peru currently have the most advanced microfinance sectors, which is in large part attributed to the financial reforms of the 1990s. However, regardless of the quality of the microfinance sectors in Bolivia and Peru, the indigenous people remain untouched by their services. Specifically, the Quechua and the Aymara, who live in the highlands of the Andes and around Lake Titicaca, are among the poorest people in both countries. The Quechua and the Aymara would greatly benefit from access to microfinance by utilizing their traditional cultures to make income-generating businesses.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009.
Title from first page of PDF file (viewed September 17, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-83).

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.

Capital investment in natural resource extraction has fuelled an unprecedented rush to secure hydrocarbon and mining concessions and contracts throughout the Andes-Amazon-Chaco region leading to increased tensions and conflict with lowland indigenous groups residing in the areas that contain subsoil resources. This thesis explores resource extraction and conflict through an ethnography of state-society interactions over proposed hydrocarbon extraction in Bolivia. It asks, how does a “post-neoliberal state” combine commitments to indigenous people, the environment and the redistributive development of natural resource wealth, and how do social movements and other actors respond? In answering this question, the thesis examines how hydrocarbon expansion has affected the country’s most important gas producing region (the Department of Tarija), indigenous Guaraní society and indigenous Weenhayek society, both in their internal relationships and in their historically uneasy negotiations with the central state. By paying particular attention to the Guaraní and Weenhayek it also asks how far a national “government of social movements” has favoured or not the concerns and political projects of indigenous groups that are generally not well represented in the social movements that undergird this new state. In this vein, this research seeks to shed light on a series of contradictions and incongruities that characterise extractive-led economies with an end to contributing to debates about the possibility of combining more socially and environmentally sound modes of production, new forms of democracy, self governance and popular participation.

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’.

Following a series of profound conflicts in the early 21st century, Bolivia became the world’s first pluri-national state in 2009. The idea of the pluri-national state goes beyond the (uni-)national state; imagining a state that allows peoples’ coexistence on an equal footing in a state that facilitates their autonomy (Garcés, 2011). However, recent research indicates that, in practice, the Bolivian state transformation is full of tensions. Based on a framework that brings together Open Marxism (Holloway and Picciotto, 1977; Clarke, 1991c; Bonefeld et al., 1992b, a; Bonefeld et al., 1995b) and the 'de-colonial option' (Quijano, 2006), I offer in-depth insights into contemporary Bolivia. In this, I understand the state as the political form of the social relations of capital, which is marked by modernity and its 'darker side' - coloniality (Mignolo, 2011). This thesis offers tools for studying how the state 'translates' indigenous- and non-indigenous struggles into policies, law and polity (Dinerstein, 2015) while also mediating external pressures. After embedding the pluri-national state in its historical context, covering the emergence and development of the Bolivian state form, I look in depth at the pluri-national state. In this, I unpack the multifaceted struggles for autonomy and find that when mediating autonomy into the pluri-national state, something essential to the definition of plurinationality is lost in translation. First, struggles for autonomy as peoples’ self-determination and deepened decentralisation became subordinated to, yet not annihilated by the government’s social-communitarian model that is advocated in the name of the pueblo’s self-determination and ensures the state’s material basis. Secondly, state-recognised autonomy comes at the cost of submission to a state which continuously operates pre-dominantly according to modern/colonial ideas of law, order and organisation. The contradictions found in the pluri-national autonomy regime and the state are inherent in it and hence, cannot be resolved through reform.

Apenas un año después de la entrada en vigor de la Constitución que “refundó” la República de Bolivia en un Estado Plurinacional (febrero 2009), once municipios rurales de mayoría indígena se embarcaban en inéditos procesos de construcción de sistemas de auto-gobierno indígena siguiendo el nuevo marco constitucional. Se empezaba a dibujar así una nueva institucionalidad diseñada por actores locales, articulada a través de la noción de “autonomía indígena”, que utiliza el lenguaje de la indigeneidad y diversos de los repertorios jurídicos y conceptuales en circulación en la Bolivia plurinacional. La presente tesis plantea una etnografía de uno de estos procesos de construcción autonómica: la Autonomía Guaraní Charagua Iyambae (Departamento de Santa Cruz), la primera autonomía indígena en lograr su plena incorporación en la estructura territorial, legal e institucional del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia. Nuestro recorrido se ubica antes de que produjera su plena institucionalización y reconocimiento oficial: cuando la autonomía era un proyecto de cambio político en construcción, contingente y en pugna: un proyecto político indígena que se afirma desde lo guaraní y sitúa en el centro la cuestión del poder político: su ejercicio, concepción y distribución. Lejos de una aproximación que reduzca la “autonomía indígena” a sus expresiones institucionales o a la serie de procedimientos legales necesarios para obtener ese estatus, esta tesis indaga en su potencial político, tratando de entender qué tipo de prácticas y aspiraciones se expresan a través de la noción de autonomía indígena y cómo se articulan en un contexto como el de Charagua y la región del Chaco: heterogéneos y profundamente desiguales. En esta tesis veremos cómo las luchas y proyectos políticos indígenas por la autodeterminación, el reconocimiento cultural y la redistribución socioeconómica conviven en tensión con luchas por la hegemonía y profundas aspiraciones de inclusión y acceso al estado, intensificadas en el contexto de la Bolivia plurinacional. Dada su vacuidad y polisemia, conceptos como “autonomía” no solo sirven para generar espacios de resistencia y auto-organización colectiva frente al estado, el desarrollo capitalista o la “modernidad” occidental hegemónica, sino también para fortalecer los vínculos con el estado, así como para acceder (y distribuir) lo que se concibe como los beneficios del desarrollo y la modernidad.
Just one year after the entry into force of the Constitution that "re-founded" the Republic of Bolivia in a Plurinational State (February 2009), eleven rural municipalities with an indigenous majority embarked on unprecedented processes of construction of indigenous self-government systems drawing on the new constitutional framework. Thus, a new institutionality designed by local actors came into existence: an institutionality articulated through the notion of "indigenous autonomy" and the language of indigeneity that uses some of the legal and conceptual terms of the plurinational Bolivia. This thesis proposes an ethnographic analysis of one of these indigenous processes towards autonomy: the Charagua Iyambae Guarani Autonomy [Autonomía Guaraní Charagua Iyambae] (Department of Santa Cruz), the first indigenous autonomy to achieve official recognition by the Plurinational State of Bolivia. My analysis focuses on the early stages of the institutionalization and legal recognition of Charagua Iyambae Guarani Autonomy, when indigenous autonomy was a project under construction, contingent and conflictive: an indigenous political project which claims the Guarani identity and places at the heart the issue of political power –its exercise, conception and distribution. Rather than an approach that reduces "indigenous autonomy" only to its institutional expressions or the legal procedures to obtain that status, this research delves into its political potential. Our goal is to try to understand what kind of practices and aspirations are expressed through the notion of indigenous autonomy, and how they are articulated in a particular context, namely Charagua and the Chaco region: heterogeneous and profoundly unequal. Throughout this dissertation we will see how the indigenous political struggles for self-determination, cultural recognition and socio-economic redistribution coexist in tension with deep aspirations for inclusion, access to power and nearness to state, intensified in the context of plurinational Bolivia. Given its emptiness and polysemy, concepts such as "autonomy" not only serve to generate spaces of resistance and collective self-organization against the state, capitalist development or hegemonic western modernity, but also to strengthen ties with the state, as well as to access (and distribute) what is conceived as the benefits of development and modernity.

Environmental governance is a challenging topic in development contexts. On the one hand, the traditional development paradigm is based on economic growth through environmental exploitation; on the other, environmental degradation reduces vulnerable populations’ options for development. In the last thirty years numerous attempts to integrate environmental concerns in development policies have proved unsuccessful, raising questions as to whether the current governance system can address the challenge. The literature on environmental management has focused on identifying rules for successful governance, leaving little space to explore the complexities of the interactions between actors and their environments, wherein the reasons for sustained degradation might lie. The questions that this thesis asks are: How do diverse groups of actors rationalize and interact with degraded ecosystems? And what role does the governance system play in codifying these interactions? To answer these questions, the thesis engages in an institutional study of Lake Titicaca, between Peru and Bolivia. The lake has witnessed a degradation of its bay in the last thirty years, as a result of urban and mining development in the region. A complex web of organizations that go from the bi-national to the community level manages Lake Titicaca. The investigation of the questions asked is particularly relevant in the current context, as the countries to which the lake belongs put forward significantly different visions of the environment. By drawing on the strengths of social-ecological systems frameworks proposed by the two mains schools – the Resilience Alliance and Bloomington Workshop – and filling some of their deficiencies using insights from the sociological literatures on negotiation and justification, I hope to have created a composite framework with which to give an insightful account of the complexity and diversity at play in the field. The thesis adopts a broad range of qualitative methods (observation, interviews, document analysis) completed with descriptive statistics for budget analysis. The thesis argues that the actors’ approaches to the ecosystem are complex, diverse and constitutive of social-ecological systems wherein relationships are negotiated between actors, between actors and the ecosystem and ‘within’ actors as they hold competing visions and strategies. Some of the variables shaping these negotiations are crafted through the interaction between social and ecological elements, which also influence the actors’ understanding of the system. Others are determined by parameters crafted in the social sphere, and the ways in which social-ecological interactions fit with those. Policy interventions to improve the condition of Lake Titicaca need a more sophisticated understanding of these social-ecological systems.

Esta investigación analiza los procesos de organización y emergencia indígena en los países centro-andinos (Bolivia, Ecuador, Perú) de la región
latinoamericana. En concreto, determina aquellos factores que determinan la aparición
de movimientos indígenas en Bolivia y Ecuador (de diferente intensidad) así como su
inhibición en Perú a pesar de que los tres países comparten características socio-
económicas comunes y trayectorias histórico-políticas paralelas - incidiendo en la
dinámica que politiza las identidades étnicas en las tres últimas décadas. Al margen de
ello, especifica el impacto que los movimientos indígenas contemporáneos tienen en:
los sistemas políticos actuales y su desempeño en la arena electoral; los procesos de
democratización en marcha en la zona y los desafíos que suponen para éste y las
iniciativas de reforma del estado.
This research analyzes the indigenous organization process in center-andean
countries (Bolivia, Ecuador, Perú) and reveals those factors which cause indigenous
movements (in Bolivia and Ecuador) and those ones which impede this phenomenon in
Perú - although these countries have common trends in economical, political and
historical spheres - with special attention to the political dynamic of ethnic identities
during the last three decades. Also these pages detail the impact of the indigenous
movements in: political systems and their performance in electoral arena;
democratization processes and the challenges that these movements put into them and
over state reform initiatives.

As an indigenous leader and member of parliament questions: "What good would having a hundred indigenous members of parliament be, if the system itself is not going to be changed, precisely if we do not propose a structural change? We have to break down the structural system if we really want democracy, if we want to move forward" (Jose Bailaba, Bolivia, August 2003). The thesis looks at the strategies for governance of the indigenous peoples of the Lowlands of Bolivia. It is a journey with key informants from the indigenous movement of the Amazon basin that raises the mariner in which strategies may vary among the peoples over time and in different contexts, while the vision itself remains constant: a vision of governance as nations. It situates their strategies in a context of transnational alliances and negotiations, with varying perceptions of the role of the state and its institutions. The research is based on six years of accompaniment of the indigenous peoples of the Lowlands of Bolivia, as well as on in-depth interviews with leaders who have held roles as community leaders, national leaders, municipal Councillors and Members of Parliament.

Bolivia's indigenous peoples have long been and are still exposed to extensive violations, such as exclusion in working life, education and health care. The indigenous peoples of the country are demanding their right to greater political participation and greater access to rights. The current president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, focuses on improving the situation for the indigenous people in the country, which has resulted in an ongoing major social change regarding indigenous relations with the state. What is happening in Bolivia is that indigenous peoples have the opportunity to create indigenous autonomies where groups can create laws and form a local government based on the group's norms and values. In this way, the groups own identities can be confirmed and their control over territory can be strengthened. However, the implementation of autonomies is weak and slow. The aim of this study is to investigate the issue of why indigenous peoples want autonomy, through a case study of Bolivia's first indigenous autonomy Charagua. Through interviews of women living in Charagua, the results has been analysed based on Will Kymlicka’s, Charles Taylor’s and James Tockman’s theories for understanding such debates. Working with these theories makes it possible to analyse whether the reasoning is about communitarian or liberal values. The conclusion of my study suggests that the argument consists of a combination of communitarian and liberal thoughts but with its foundation in communitarianism, since the group's identity, culture and dignity seems to be valued more than liberal principles.
Bolivias ursprungsbefolkningar har länge varit och är fortfarande idag utsatta för omfattande kränkningar, såsom exkludering inom arbetsmarknad, utbildning samt hälsovård. Urfolken kräver nu sin rätt till större tillgång av rättigheter samt politiskt deltagande. Bolivias nuvarande president, Evo Morales, fokuserar på att förbättra situationen för urfolk i landet, vilket har resulterat i stora sociala förändringar när det gäller urfolks relation till staten. Vad som är aktuellt i Bolivia är att urfolksgrupper har möjligheten att skapa urfolksautonomier. Grupper kan därmed stifta lagar samt utforma lokala regeringar baserade på gruppers normer och värderingar. På så sätt kan dessa gruppers egna identiteter hävdas och deras kontroll över territorium kan stärkas. Implementeringen av autonomier i landet är dock svag och långsam. Syftet med denna studie är att, genom en fallstudie av Bolivias första urfolksautonomi Charagua, undersöka varför urfolk vill bilda autonomi. Genom intervjuer av kvinnor bosatta i Charagua har argumentationen analyserats utifrån Will Kymlickas, Charles Taylors och James Tockmans teorier för att förstå resonemangen som förs. Dessa teorier möjliggör en analys kring om argumentationen genomsyras av kommunitära eller liberala värderingar. Slutsatsen för min studie är att argumentationen är en hybrid av både kommunitära och liberala tankar, dock med sin grund i kommunitarismen då gruppens identitet, kultur och värdighet tycks värderas högre än liberala principer.