El Alto, Rebel City: Self and Citizenship in Andean Bolivia

El Alto, Rebel City: Self and Citizenship in Andean Bolivia (Latin America Otherwise)

Combining anthropological methods and theories with political philosophy, Sian Lazar analyzes everyday practices and experiences of citizenship in a satellite city to the Bolivian capital of La Paz: El Alto, where more than three-quarters of the population identify as indigenous Aymara. For several years, El Alto has been at the heart of resistance to neoliberal market reforms, such as the export of natural resources and the privatization of public water systems. In October 2003, protests centered in El Alto forced the Bolivian president to resign; in December 2005, the countryâ€™s first indigenous president, Evo Morales, was elected. The growth of a strong social justice movement in Bolivia has caught the imagination of scholars and political activists worldwide. El Alto remains crucial to this ongoing process. In El Alto, Rebel City Lazar examines the values, practices, and conflicts behind the astonishing political power exercised by El Alto citizens in the twenty-first century.
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 1997 and 2004, Lazar contends that in El Alto, citizenship is a set of practices defined by oneâ€™s participation in a range of associations, many of them collectivist in nature. Her argument challenges Western liberal notions of the citizen by suggesting that citizenship is not only individual and national but in many ways communitarian and distinctly local, constituted through different kinds of affiliations. Since in El Alto these affiliations most often emerge through peopleâ€™s place of residence and their occupational ties, Lazar offers in-depth analyses of neighborhood associations and trade unions. In so doing, she describes how the cityâ€™s various collectivities mediate between the state and the individual. Collective organization in El Alto and the concept of citizenship underlying it are worthy of attention; they are the basis of the cityâ€™s formidable power to mobilize popular protest.
Country USA
Brand Duke University Press
Manufacturer Duke University Press
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 19 b&w photographs
ReleaseDate 2008-01-04
UnitCount 1
Format Illustrated
EANs 9780822341543

Country	USA
Brand	Duke University Press
Manufacturer	Duke University Press
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	19 b&w photographs
ReleaseDate	2008-01-04
UnitCount	1
Format	Illustrated
EANs	9780822341543

El Alto, Rebel City: Self and Citizenship in Andean Bolivia (Latin America Otherwise)

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