Neo-extractivism, the Bolivian state, and indigenous peasant women’s struggles for water in the Altiplano

Abstract

President Evo Morales's Bolivian government, in its pursuit of modernization and economic expansion, has adopted a development paradigm known as neo-extractivism, which is essentially a reproduction of the colonial division of labour. Due to the state's strong economic links to the extractivist industry, indigenous people and the state have long been at odds. Despite extensive research on neo-extractivism's political economy, little is known about the impact of these conflicts on gender, racial, and class-based sociopolitical interactions. This qualitative study set out to fill the knowledge gap by asking the following questions: What gendered types of dispossession-based accumulation does neo-extractivism produce? In response to the effects of neo-extractivism, how are indigenous communities fighting back? Through an examination of social reproduction processes in Oruro, Bolivia, this research demonstrates that neoextractivism primarily results in the poisoning of water, which in turn leads to the eviction of indigenous ways of life and dignified lands. The loss of water resources has a disproportionately negative impact on indigenous peasant women due to the fact that they are primarily involved in water-related subsistence production and social reproduction. While this may be the case, indigenous women and communities are far from being idle. New forms of resistance to neo-exportivism have emerged. Simultaneously, indigenous peasant women have been able to construct solidarity networks that sustain social fabric both within and across communities via the everyday tasks of social reproduction within the framework of subsistence agriculture, which are rooted in Andean epistemes of reciprocity. As places of daily resistance, these solidarity networks provide vital sociopolitical resources and pose a constant challenge to and alternative to patriarchal, capitalist, and colonial dictates.