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Vivir Bien As an Alternative to Neoliberal Globalization; Can Indigenous Terminologies Decolonize the State?

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Vivir Bien As an Alternative to Neoliberal Globalization; Can Indigenous Terminologies Decolonize the State? “A comprehensive and timely contribution to indigenous governmentality, development, and decolonization scholarship. Ranta makes excellent job in examining diverse approaches to Vivir Bien in Bolivian policy transformations.” Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen, Assistant Professor, Indigenous Studies, University of Helsinki “In this historical moment of crisis and disillusionment, this book offers us an introduction to a novel and powerful concept. Ranta writes with precision and passion, rooted in the Andes but contributing to cosmopolitan discussions.” Eduardo Gudynas, Director, Latin American Center of Social Ecology (CLAES), Uruguay “Can indigenous ideas not just challenge but transform the postcolonial nation state? Ranta’s book interrogates our understanding of indigeneity and of the modern, globalised nation state as well. It demonstrates how indigeneity is not simply a discourse of marginality but how it challenges the very notion of how citizens – of all backgrounds – relate to the state. Based on a deeply rich ethnography of bureaucracy, Ranta’s book explores what happens when indigeneity enters into the heart of the nation state.” Andrew Canessa, University of Essex, UK Vivir Bien as an Alternative to Neoliberal Globalization Presenting an ethnographic account of the emergence and application of critical political alternatives in the Global South, this book analyzes the opportunities and challenges of decolonizing and transforming a modern, hierarchical and globally immersed nation-state on the basis of indigenous terminologies. Alternative development paradigms that represent values including justice, pluralism, democracy, and a sustainable relationship to nature tend to emerge in response to – and often opposed to – the neoliberal globalization. Through a focus on the empirical case of the notion of Vivir Bien (‘living well’) as a critical cultural and ecological paradigm in Bolivia, Ranta demonstrates how indigeneity – indigenous peoples’ discourses, cultural ideas, and worldviews – has become such a denominator in the construction of local political and policy alternatives. More widely, the author seeks to map conditions for, and the challenges of, radical political projects that aim to counteract neoliberal globalization and Western hegemony in defi ning development. This book will appeal to critical academic scholars, development practitioners, and social activists aiming to come to grips with the complexity of processes of progressive social change in our contemporary global world. Eija Ranta is University Lecturer in development studies at the University of Helsinki. Rethinking Globalizations Edited by Barry K. Gills University of Helsinki, Finland and Kevin Gray, University of Sussex, UK. This series is designed to break new ground in the literature on globalization and its academic and popular understanding. Rather than perpetuating or simply react- ing to the economic understanding of globalization, this series seeks to capture the term and broaden its meaning to encompass a wide range of issues and disciplines and convey a sense of alternative possibilities for the future. Chinese Labour in the Global Economy Capitalist Exploitation and Strategies of Resistance Edited by Andreas Bieler and Chun-Yi Lee Brexit and the Political Economy of Fragmentation Things Fall Apart Edited by Jamie Morgan and Heikki Patomäki Disintegrative Tendencies in Global Political Economy Exits and Confl ict Heikki Patomäki Environmental Security in Transnational Contexts What Relevance for Regional Human Security Regimes? Edited by Harlan Koff and Carmen Maganda The Role of Religion in Struggles for Global Justice Faith in Justice Edited by Peter J. Smith, Katharina Glaab, Claudia Baumgart-Ochse and Elizabeth Smythe Vivir Bien as an Alternative to Neoliberal Globalization Can Indigenous Terminologies Decolonize the State? Eija Ranta For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Rethinking- Globalizations/book-series/RG Vivir Bien as an Alternative to Neoliberal Globalization Can Indigenous Terminologies Decolonize the State? Eija Ranta First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Eija Ranta The right of Eija Ranta to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-74661-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-18044-1 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents List of illustrations ix Acknowledgements x List of acronyms xii 1 Introduction: Vivir Bien as a postneoliberal alternative in the global world 1 Bolivia’s indigenous alternative to universalist development models 6 Following the notion of Vivir Bien 11 Synopsis of the book 15 2 Towards decolonial government 16 Policy making, state formation, and power 17 Government as a fi eld of power 20 Articulations of rule 23 Indigenous self-governance, lands, and territories 27 Articulating indigeneity 29 Coloniality, racism, and the decolonial option 33 Vivir Bien: towards more heterodox political economy? 37 3 Indigenous resistance struggles, coloniality of the state, and the capitalist world-system: a historical view 41 Colonial governance and the making of racial differences 42 Struggles between liberal and communal practices 45 The nationalist revolution and the uprising of katarismo 47 The global fl ow of indigenous ideas 50 The neoliberal turn 54 Multicultural policy reforms in the 1990s 56 The evolvement of the MAS as a political instrument 59 viii Contents 4 Contested meanings of Vivir Bien 65 Suma Qamaña as cultural difference 66 Promoting indigenous self-determination 70 Vivir Bien in state development policies 73 Decolonizing indigenous policy? 75 Counteracting ‘neoliberal colonialism’ 80 Recent policy formulations 83 Indigenous elements in the constitution 85 5 “Colonialism strikes back”: Vivir Bien as bureaucratic practice and technical expertise 90 The making of sectoral plans 91 The depoliticization of Vivir Bien 95 Micropractices of power in the practice of government 98 The critique of technical expertise by aid agencies 100 Technicalizing indigenous expertise 105 Young consultants as brokers of policy knowledge 107 6 Bureaucracy as a disciplinary power 112 The opposition of public servants 113 Are public servants neutral? 116 Racial orders under threat 119 Co-opting social movements 123 Disciplining the masses 125 Centralization of state power 128 7 In the name of Vivir Bien: legitimizing extractive confl icts? 133 Elite co-option of autonomy discourses 134 Bypassing indigenous self-determination 138 Towards resource nationalism 141 Extractive confl icts: the case of TIPNIS 144 Socialist environmentalism or reconstituted neoliberalism? 148 8 Concluding remarks 153 Decolonial government 154 The state and neoliberalism 156 Epilogue 162 Bibliography 163 Index 181 Illustrations Figures 1.1 Map of major indigenous peoples in Bolivia 9 5.1 Articulation between different levels of development planning 92 8.1 Competing forms of government 161 Table 1.1 Interviews by the category of interviewees, including the number of individual and group interviews and gender-aggregated data 13 Acknowledgements This book is based on my PhD thesis, “In the Name of Vivir Bien: Indigeneity, State Formation, and Politics in Evo Morales’ Bolivia” ( Ranta 2014 ), which I produced in the fi eld of critical development studies at the University of Helsinki. My doctoral work was generously supported by the Finnish Graduate School of Development Studies (DEVESTU), and I am deeply grateful for the backing and encouragement that I received from its leader, Juhani Koponen; enormous gratitude is also owed to my supervisors, Jeremy Gould and Maaria Seppänen. The constructive and critical comments of my PhD committee – consisting of Barry K. Gills, Rosalind Eyben, Teivo Teivainen, Harry E. Vanden, and Jeffery R. Webber – greatly helped me to improve the PhD thesis and, subsequently, this book. I wholeheartedly thank my fellow PhD candidates and members of the community of development studies in Finland for peer support, research companionship, and generosity in commenting on my writing over the years. Special thanks go to Henni Alava, Minna Hakka- rainen, Marjaana Jauhola, Helena Jerman, Kaari Mattila, Lalli Metsola, Anja Nygren, Henri Onodera, Sirpa Rovaniemi, Marikki Stochetti, and Gutu Wayessa. In Bolivia, I am most grateful to Noel Aguirre, Milenka Argote, Leonel Cer- ruto, Pavel López, Fidel Rocha, Ramiro Saravia, Luis Tapia, and Oscar Vega for their academic collaboration and friendship. The deepest gratitude goes to all my informants in Bolivia, who make an appearance in this book under pseudonyms, although I use the real names of major public fi gures, activists, and academics whose views are widely known. Since concluding my PhD
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