Participation, Politics and Technology Agrarian Development in Post- Neoliberal Bolivia
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Participation, Politics and Technology Agrarian development in post- neoliberal Bolivia Diana Córdoba Thesis Committee Promotor Prof. Dr P. Richards Profesor Emeritus, Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Group Wageningen University Co-promotor Dr Ir K. Jansen Associate professor, Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Group Wageningen University Other members Prof. Dr B.J.M. Arts, Wageningen University Prof. Dr C. Kay, International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague / Erasmus University, Rotterdam Prof. Dr S.A. Radcliffe, University of Cambridge, UK Dr A.J. Salman, VU University Amsterdam This research was conducted under the auspices of the Wageningen School of Social Sciences Participation, Politics and Technology Agrarian development in post-neoliberal Bolivia Diana Marcela Córdoba Blandón Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor at Wageningen University by the authority of the Rector Magnificus Prof. Dr M.J. Kropff, in the presence of the Thesis Committee appointed by the Academic Board to be defended in public on Wednesday 03 September 2014 at 4 p.m. in the Aula. Diana Córdoba Participation, Politics and Technology: Agrarian development in post- neoliberal Bolivia, 166 pages. PhD thesis Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands (2014) With references, with summaries in Dutch, English and Spanish ISBN 978-74-6257-066-5 Table of Content Abbreviations and Acronyms ................................................................................................. ix Preface and Acknowledgments ............................................................................................ xiii General Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 2 The Debate on Participation and Agrarian Development: Scope of the thesis .................................... 5 Framework: Politics, technology, and participation ............................................................................ 9 Research Questions ........................................................................................................................... 13 Research Design ................................................................................................................................ 14 Structure and Argument of the Thesis ............................................................................................... 18 Realigning the Political and the Technical: NGOs and the Politicization of Agrarian Development in Bolivia .......................................................................................................... 21 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 23 Different types of NGOs in Agrarian Development .......................................................................... 25 The MAS Government and the Rise of Neocollectivism in Bolivia ................................................. 26 Neocollectivism and internal tensions ........................................................................................... 28 The MAS Government and NGOs: A Public Confrontation ............................................................. 31 The Political and the Technical in NGOs’ Adaptations to Post-neoliberal Politics .......................... 35 Fundación Valles: tensions and negotiations in business models for small farmers .................... 35 PROINPA: adapting to post-neoliberal policies with agri-ecological technology ....................... 37 CEPAC: Providing services to social organizations to access government resources ................. 39 Contrasting adaptation strategies to neocollectivism by NGOs ........................................................ 41 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 43 The Return of the State: Neocollectivism, agrarian politics and images of technological progress in the MAS era in Bolivia ....................................................................................... 45 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 47 Neocollectivism despite its Critics .................................................................................................... 50 The Formation of Agrarian Classes in Santa Cruz ............................................................................ 51 The capitalist state (1953-1985) and national agribusiness elites ................................................ 52 Neoliberalism (1985-2005) and multinational capital .................................................................. 53 Neocollectivism: The case of EMAPA ............................................................................................. 55 EMAPA Shaping Images of Agrarian Modernization ...................................................................... 60 Adopting the dominant image of agrarian modernization ............................................................ 60 Technological dependency ............................................................................................................ 62 Collective versus individual visions .............................................................................................. 64 State-Civil Society Relations and EMAPA’s Capacity to Intervene in Rural Development ............ 66 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 68 The Malleability of Participation: The politics of agricultural research under Neoliberalism in Bolivia ......................................................................................................... 71 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 73 Building Technostatist Agricultural Research and the Liberalization Response .............................. 76 Neoliberal State Restructurings and Participation in Agricultural Research in Bolivia .................... 78 From State to NGO: PROINPA and potato research and extension ................................................. 81 Technologies of the self: Shaping a new researcher ..................................................................... 82 Creating demand ........................................................................................................................... 83 Malleable participation: Shifting the objectives of farmer participation in Morochata ............... 84 Participation: Making agricultural research social without politics .................................................. 89 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 93 Empowerment through articulations between post-neoliberal politics and neoliberalism: Development of value chain alliances in Bolivia .................................................................. 95 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 97 Neoliberal and Neocollectivist Views on Empowerment.................................................................. 99 The PAR Programme and its Empowerment Strategies .................................................................. 103 The PAR model in Bolivia ........................................................................................................... 103 Depoliticizing social movements: Individual entrepreneurship vs collective citizenship ........... 105 Improving capacities and self-governance to demand state support .......................................... 109 The limits of ‘self-governance’: Confronting government failures ............................................. 112 Articulating Empowerment as Capacity-Building with Structural Empowerment ......................... 113 Conclusions ..................................................................................................................................... 116 General Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 119 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 120 The MAS Government and Neocollectivism in Rural Development Interventions ........................ 121 Participation as a Managerial Tool and Political Participation ....................................................... 123 Neocollectivism and its Articulation with Neoliberal Governance ................................................. 125 Politicized Participation vs. Participation as a Social Technology? Implications for development practice ............................................................................................................................................ 127 What’s Next? ..................................................................................................................................