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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Anatomy Of A Regional Conflict: Tarija And Resource Grievances In Moraless Bolivia, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Anthony Bebbington Jul 2010

Anatomy Of A Regional Conflict: Tarija And Resource Grievances In Moraless Bolivia, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Anthony Bebbington

Sustainability and Social Justice

In 2008, the Department of Tarija became the epicenter of national political struggles over political autonomy for lowland regions at odds with the Morales administration. In September, following a series of regional referenda on autonomy and a national recall election, citizen committees in Tarija mobilized urban-based sectors and organized a general strike against the central government. It is unhelpful to understand the strike as simply an act of political sabotage orchestrated by racist regional elites. The factors driving protest and interest in autonomy are varied and deeply related to patterns of hydrocarbons extraction in the department that have allowed for …


Extraction, Territory, And Inequalities: Gas In The Bolivian Chaco, Denise Bebbington, Anthony J. Bebbington Jan 2010

Extraction, Territory, And Inequalities: Gas In The Bolivian Chaco, Denise Bebbington, Anthony J. Bebbington

Sustainability and Social Justice

Conflicts over extractive industry have emerged as one of the most visible and potentially explosive terrains for struggles over distribution, territory, and inequality in the Andes. We explore these relationships in Bolivia, focusing on gas extraction in the Chaco region of the southeastern department of Tarija. We consider how the expansion of extractive industry intersects with territorializing projects of state, sub-national elites, and indigenous actors as well as with questions of inequality and inequity. We conclude that arguments over the territorial constitution of Bolivia are inevitably also arguments over gas and the contested concepts of equity underlying its governance. © …