Indigeneity, Constitutional Changes and Urban Policies: Conflicting Realities in La Paz, Bolivia and Quito, Ecuador

This thesis critically examines the role of indigeneity in urban policies and planning in a context of constitutional changes that have taken place in Bolivia and Ecuador in the recent decade. It departs from previous academic and policy research which mainly studied indigenous rights in rural areas and focused on urban indigenous peoples as outlawed, excluded, or insurgent subjects. Instead, it conceptualises the translation of indigenous rights into urban policies as a complex process in which a multiplicity of social actors – including government officials and urban indigenous groups – are involved. Drawing on the practice-centric literature on urban policy and planning, it recognises that the work of government officials is influenced by multiple factors such as constitutional texts as well as their personal views, interest group demands, and the wider structural and political environment surrounding them. Government attempts to translate indigenous rights are contrasted to urban indigenous peoples’ own understandings of indigeneity and associated interests and demands. In addition, this thesis uses an asset accumulation framework as well as the concept of tactics to identify how urban indigenous peoples address and negotiate their interests and demands and try to influence decision-making processes from the bottom-up. The thesis relies on La Paz (Bolivia) and Quito (Ecuador) as ‘illustrative cases’ to study the role of indigeneity in urban policies. As both La Paz and Quito represent capital cities, it was possible to approach government officials operating at multiple scales – international, national and local – as well as ordinary urban indigenous residents. Methodologically, the thesis employs a qualitative, case study comparison and draws on information derived from semi-structured interviews, document analysis, participant observation and participatory focus groups conducted during eleven months of fieldwork. In terms of comparison, this thesis makes use of a variation-finding approach. By explaining variations between the cases through focusing on the unique processes and factors that shaped the translation of indigenous rights within each city, it intends to offer a more nuanced and context-responsive approach for studying urban indigeneity and addressing indigenous rights in cities. A central finding of this thesis is that the incorporation of indigeneity into urban policies and indigenous people’s own practices to fulfil their specific demands were characterised by a set of conflicting realities: First, for government officials the translation of indigenous rights into urban policies sometimes clashed with other priorities – such as addressing universal rights and interests of non-indigenous pressure groups – or with their own views of the city as a ‘white’, ‘western’, and ‘modern’ places. Second, urban indigenous peoples articulated multiple and contradictory identities. They mainly did this by voicing specific demands for land – an important asset which they associated with the preservation of a communal and traditional lifestyle but also with aspirations to lead a modern and capitalist life in the city. Third, the findings reveal that indigenous peoples – particularly their community leaders – had to enter in negotiations with governments to access different assets such as land, housing, or education. In these processes leaders manoeuvred between different worlds. They had to conform to political agendas and – particularly in the case of Bolivia – to official spatialized understandings of identity and rights which often conflicted with their own sense of being indigenous in the city

Verfassungspopulismus und Verfassungswandel in Lateinamerika

Am 15. Februar 2009 stimmten knapp 55 Prozent der Venezolaner für eine Verfassungsreform, mit der dem amtierenden Präsidenten Hugo Chávez die unbegrenzte Wiederwahl ermöglicht wird. Nur drei Wochen zuvor war in Bolivien gleichfalls mittels eines Referendums eine neue Verfassung angenommen worden. Bereits am 28. September des Vorjahres hatt en die Ecuadorianer in einer Volksabstimmung dem Entwurf für eine neue Verfassung zugestimmt

The SDGs in middle-income countries : Setting or serving domestic development agendas? Evidence from Ecuador

The expansion of middle-income countries in the global South is now widely acknowledged as significant for international development research and practice. But, as yet, scholars have not fully considered how middle-income countries are responding to the new global goals on international development (the Sustainable Development Goals – SDGs) outlined in Agenda 2030. Equally, insufficient attention has been paid to how – if at all – the SDGs shape domestic development policies and practices in middle income countries. We ask these questions in Ecuador, a country that recently moved from being a lower middle-income and donor dependent country to a more autonomous higher middle-income country with the capacity to promote its own national domestic development approach, Buen Vivir (in English: living well). Deploying a qualitative case study methodology and drawing primarily on in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with policy makers working in Ecuador's national government and in the capital Quito, we show that policy makers’ engagement with the SDGs is selective, with an emphasis on those goals and targets which are considered of domestic importance. Both the national government and Quito's local government are currently focussing mainly on SDGs 10.2 (breaking inequalities) and 11 (inclusive cities). We demonstrate that, in practice, how policy makers understand implementation of these “priority” goals is not consistent; it depends on political preferences, where policy makers are located in the architecture of decentralised governance and the context-specific challenges they face. Evidence from Ecuador suggests that the SDGs cannot be understood as a single coherent template for development that states will simply adopt. Rather they should be analysed in the context of a rapidly changing architecture of global power, shaped by the context-specific nature of national development challenges and national political structures, including decentralisation

The ugly twins: failed global sourcing projects and their substitutes

Purpose of the paper and literature addressed:\ud Analyzing the impact of failed global sourcing projects on the entire commodity group and exploring isomorphism as potential antecedent to the observed phenomenon. The paper is embedded in the global sourcing literature, as well as isomorphism and total cost analysis. \ud \ud Research method:\ud Secondary data analysis.\ud \ud Research findings:\ud 1) Each failed global sourcing project had an “ugly twin”, i.e. the material which was not delivered by the new supplier had to be purchased from another supplier, usually the old supplier which was meant to be replaced. This re-sourcing was associated with poorer commercial conditions.\ud 2) Higher savings expectations corresponded with lower realization rate. We interpret this finding as an expression of the presence of mimetic isomorphism.\ud \ud Main contribution:\ud Exposing the “ugly twins” and empirically testing the isomorphism assumption. Findings ask to expand total cost calculations by including the costs of failed projects. Global sourcing benefits may be over-estimated by previous studies, as they do not seem to deduce the costs of failed projects from overall savings. Firms are alerted that unrealistically high savings expectations are very likely to result in disappointment. Thus projects should preferably be avoided

How to measure competition? The role of price dispersion in B2B supply markets

Since the formation of close relationships with suppliers requires a considerable amount of resources, the capacities for such relationships are limited. Thus, recently, research points into the direction that it might not be conducive to unconditionally engage in strategic buyer-supplier alliances. Specifically, in those cases where there is a vivid competition within the supply market, it might not be necessary to cooperate closely. However, a convenient measurement method for competition has been missing in the literature so far. Accordingly, this conceptual paper translates insights from the field of economics for an application in purchasing and supply management. It is recommended to evaluate the product price dispersion of supplier quotations in order to assess the intensity of competition in supply markets. As a consequence, this conceptual paper paves the way for future research on competition between suppliers. For managers, the proposed method could support the development of efficient purchasing strategies

Verfassungspopulismus und Verfassungswandel in Lateinamerika

"Am 15. Februar 2009 stimmten knapp 55 Prozent der Venezolaner für eine Verfassungsreform, mit der dem amtierenden Präsidenten Hugo Chávez die unbegrenzte Wiederwahl ermöglicht wird. Nur drei Wochen zuvor war in Bolivien gleichfalls mittels eines Referendums eine neue Verfassung angenommen worden. Bereits am 28. September des Vorjahres hatten die Ecuadorianer in einer Volksabstimmung dem Entwurf für eine neue Verfassung zugestimmt. Verfassungsreformen sind in Lateinamerika zurzeit in Mode: Seit 1990 wurden insgesamt sieben neue Verfassungen und 239 einfache Verfassungsänderungen verabschiedet. Die jüngsten Reformen spiegeln allgemeine Trends wider, weisen aber auch einige spezifische Merkmale und Neuerungen auf. Dazu gehört, die Rechte der indigenen Bevölkerung zu stärken und den 'plurinationalen' Charakter der Staaten hervorzuheben. Die beiden neuen Verfassungen von Bolivien und Ecuador sind mit jeweils mehr als 400 Artikeln die bei weitem umfangreichsten Verfassungen in Lateinamerika. Sie enthalten eine Vielzahl von Versprechungen (wie das Anrecht auf ein 'gutes Leben') und legen wichtige Politikinhalte (vor allem in der Wirtschafts- und Sozialpolitik) fest. Verfassungen werden in Lateinamerika relativ häufig reformiert, sei es durch die Verabschiedung neuer Verfassungen, sei es durch einfache Verfassungsreformen. Dieser Trend hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren verstärkt. Die Verfassungstexte werden immer umfangreicher und führen zu einer Konstitutionalisierung von Politikfeldern. Viele der gegenwärtigen Verfassungsreformen weisen eine starke machtpolitische Komponente auf. Sie wurden von den amtierenden Präsidenten initiiert und festigen deren Position. Teilen der Verfassungsreformen kommt hingegen symbolischer Charakter zu, indem sie den Bürgern weitreichende Versprechungen machen ('Verfassungspopulismus'), deren Umsetzbarkeit jedoch zweifelhaft erscheint. Die Wahrscheinlichkeit immer neuer Verfassungsreformen ist mit den letzten Referenden gerade in den drei genannten Ländern eher größer als kleiner geworden." (Autorenreferat