In Spaces of Marginalization: Dispossession, Incorporation, and Resistance in Bolivia

Recent scholarship conceptualizing primitive accumulation as an ongoing process in global capitalism has noted the difficulties faced in bringing struggles against exploitation and dispossession together. While some scholars suggest that an 'organic link" exists between these conflicts. they have yet to clearly specify the conditions and mechanisms through which such a link can form. Examining cases in Bolivia at the turn of the twenty-first century. I argue that struggles against exploitation and dispossession do not merely converge when facing a common oppressor. but also as the changing forms and geographies of exploitation and dispossession bring people together in more proximate locations. I illustrate that the changing means through which Bolivia was incorporated into the global economy enhanced levels of marginalization and subsequently resulted in patterns of migration that led to a convergence of peasant and proletarian struggles. As both segments of Bolivian society were excluded from the country's major economic sectors. they migrated to the places where they thought they could best satisfy their livelihood needs. But as people continually struggled to meet these needs, these places became spaces of marginalization, and eventually, spaces of resistance

Powering up: Latin America's energy challenges

The LSE IDEAS Latin America International Affairs Programme bring together in this report a group of leading experts to discuss the challenges facing Latin America's energy producers. In the last decade many Latin American states used rising commodity prices to underpin domestic redistributive policies, and those high prices have made the region an important one to watch in the global energy market. Progress towards regional policy coordination has been hampered by diplomatic arguments, country variations and national interests. With growing domestic demand and insufficient energy supplies, the role of energy transcends the national, regional and international levels of Latin American politics, and demonstrates the importance that this sector will play in the decade ahead