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Women's Voices on the Executive Council: Popular Organizations and Resource Battles in Bolivia and Ecuador
Abstract
In the 2000s, Bolivia and Ecuador were marked by battles over natural resources in which mass mobilizations challenged the neoliberal privatization of resources such as water and natural gas. In El Alto and Quito, these mobilizations boosted the public standing of women whose frontline militancy helped confront privatization and build momentum for the election of women to top leadership. Although gender discrimination persisted, women’s activism in these resource battles demonstrated to men their capacity to lead in arenas other than health, family, and education. In the wake of these conflicts, variations in women’s voice—the power to speak, set agendas, and dictate discourse—on the executive councils of popular organizations prove to be determined by societal sexism, leadership and training opportunities for women, the presence of more women on the executive council, the status of the council seats won by women, and the particular organization’s decision-making process.
... Las mujeres han estado liderando dos frentes de lucha en este sentido. El primero contra las políticas de privatización del agua, y de energía con movimientos de protesta iniciados desde ciudades como Monterrey, México (Bennett, 1998), Quito, Ecuador; El Alto, Bolivia (Dosh, Kligerman & Lerager, 2010) y Cochabamba, Bolivia (Bustamante, Peredo & Udaeta, 2005) y que históricamente se han intensificado en ciudades Surafricanas como Johannesburgo (Lee, 2006). El segundo frente de lucha lo constituye su participación en la administración democrática de estos recursos desde ciudades africanas como Lagos (Enabor, Sridhar & Olaseha, 1998) hasta asiáticas como Katmandú (Shresta, 1998. ...
... Changes in the discourse and symbolism of water management -such as the growing emphasis on cost recovery, economic efficiency and the monetary value of water -all reflect the political priorities of hegemonic groups and the wider balance of power in society. Likewise, the international experience demonstrates that success of neoliberalizing strategies in the water sector depends, first and foremost, on the negotiation capacity of government officials and private companies, who often need to persuade a normally sceptical public of the benefits of water neoliberalization (Mustafa & Reeder, 2009;Dosh et al., 2010). Through the application of such a politically sensitive framework, the water sector of Lima provides a vivid example of the contested basis of the adjustments associated with water neoliberalism, as the following discussion reveals. ...
The contingent relation between water governance and nature neoliberalization has defined most interventions in the water sector around the world in recent years. In the case of the Peruvian capital Lima, the provision of water and sanitation services in the last two decades has been the object of investments and institutional reforms strongly influenced by economic neoliberalism. This essay examines the evolution of these neoliberalizing tendencies, noting the internal disputes, necessary adjustments and underlying problems of water sufficiency in the metropolitan region. The empirical results suggest that, rather than a straightforward process, the neoliberalization of water in Lima has advanced according to political opportunities and technico-operational constraints. The water reforms implemented in the 1990s – when the goal of privatization met political opposition – can be contrasted with the more recent phase in the 2000s, when more flexible mechanisms, such as public-private partnerships, have facilitated public acceptance. Despite the renovation of the infrastructure, the modernization of the water sector has failed to address persistent water management problems, namely the discriminatory treatment of low income residents, the chaotic expansion of the metropolitan area and the risk of future water shortages.
What are the opportunities and challenges of faculty–undergraduate collaborative scholarship that involves student participation at every stage of the research process? Drawing on interviews with comparative politics faculty members and undergraduate students, this article discusses the themes of reciprocity, incentives, and “off-ramps.” First, we find that an unequal division of labor can give way to a more reciprocal work dynamic as long-term projects unfold. Second, we consider the use of incremental incentives to sustain student motivation. Third, we propose the creation of off-ramps to allow an undergraduate to gracefully exit a project early. Grounded in these themes, we argue that—with a few guardrails—faculty members and undergraduate students can benefit from long-term collaborative research projects, including those that involve fieldwork or that seek to publish peer-reviewed articles.
La Paz, the Bolivian capital, rests in a deep valley in the heart of the Andes. The geographical terrain of the city is marked clearly with deep class divisions and the racist legacies of Spanish colonial impositions and ongoing internal colonialism, present since the founding of the republic in 1825. The indigenous peoples-over 60 percent of the population according to the 2001 census-have suffered at the bottom of a wickedly steep social hierarchy that whitens in accordance with class privilege This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.
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List of figures and tables Preface 1. Why women protest: tipping, timing, and framing 2. Mothers of the cold war, daughters of the revolution: an historical overview of women and Chilean politics Part I. Women against Allende: 3. The revolution hits home: women organize against Allende 4. Catapulting men to action: the march of the empty pots 5. 'Feminine power' and the end of the socialist revolution Part II. Women against Pinochet: 6. Gendered networks and the rebirth of civil society 7. Women defend life: mass protests and the women's movement 8. Democracy in the country and in the home: women for and against democratic transition 9. Why women protest: comparative evidence References Index.
At five key moments, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund pressured weak administrations in Bolivia to adopt policies that had a negative impact on the country's political stability. The principle of “market democracy” had become so sacrosanct within the international financial institutions that they ignored the difficulties their policies created. Changes in policy since 2006, when Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, came to power, reflect more of an accommodation in the face of a shifting context than any significant recognition of neoliberalism's limitations.
Through a study of the struggles of barrio women in Quito, Ecuador, the theoretical division between practical and strategic gender interests is challenged. By forming an autonomous organisation, the women of Solanda came into conflict with the male dominated neighbourhood committee. In their struggles within the community and in relation to outside agencies, the women "learnt to speak' and through participation changed everyday power relations and politics. The struggles of urban women, who do not define themselves as feminists, are also changing feminist ideas and practice towards a feminism capable of embracing the thinking, experience and desires of all women. -R.Jenkins
Urban popular movements that organize illegal land invasion communities present an intriguing puzzle. When most invasion organizations acquire land titles, their participation levels plummet and their agendas stagnate; yet some neighborhoods achieve land titles, sustain high participation, and acquire other services, such as piped-in water. Why do these organizations achieve movement resilience? The more typical trajectory of movement collapse is explained by the disappearance of the key selective incentive, property security. Some organizations, however, evade this “security trap” through mixed motives: their basic material agenda is supplemented by a nonmaterial and often altruistic agenda, which sustains participation in the face of reduced selective incentives. Examining three neighborhood case studies in Lima and Quito, this article argues that a new, “innovator” type of invasion organization is more likely to exhibit sustained participation and movement resilience due to tactical innovation, democratic governance, and mixed motives.
Obra que analiza el caso de El Alto, una ciudad periférica de la capital boliviana con un gran poder político y de presión social. Los habitantes de esta zona se reconocen a sí mismo como indígenas aimaráes y por años han sido foco de la resistencia contra las reformas económicas y políticas impuestas por el neoliberalismo, tales como la explotación de recursos naturales o la privatización del sistema de distribución del agua. Con base en un estudio antropológico llevado a cabo entre 1997 y 2004, se examina la participación de los individuos organizados de manera colectiva y local en una sociedad civil que realmente se hace escuchar y es políticamente activa y representativa.
This article examines the long term impacts of Bolivia's partial privatization of state-owned enterprises, known as capitalization. Despite attempting to introduce an innovative social component to distribute the benefits of privatization to Bolivian citizens, the lack of an adequate government regulatory structure meant that capitalization was unable to meet most of its objectives. While foreign direct investment rose between 1995 and 2000, these investments created few jobs and the taxes paid by the privatized companies failed to replace the revenue they had previously provided to the government. Capitalization has not reduced corruption but, rather, shifted the locus of rent seeking from the public to the private sector. The perception of the privatization of public resources led to increased social protest and political instability. The cycle of protests culminated with the resignation of the president in October 2003 following protests that left over 70 civilians dead. Rather than create a climate favorable for free markets, capitalization served as a catalyst to mobilize popular protest against neoliberal restructuring and may threaten the neoliberal economic policies in Bolivia in the coming years.
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Lazar (2008: 196–203) provides examples of women leaders' performing this type of domestic task for male leaders.
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