The roots of rural collective action: An examination of a highland peasant movement in Bolivia.

摘要

This thesis explores the material processes that underlay the collective mobilization of peasants in the highland areas of the Department of La Paz, Bolivia. By researching secondary English language documents, I examine macro and micro level socio-economic transformations that occurred following the 1952 Bolivian Revolution. Although the Revolution established the preconditions for the incorporation of peasants into national economic life, post-Revolutionary structural processes at the macro level blocked the full integration of these peasants into national economic structures. Marginalized by macro economic forces, peasants in the La Paz highlands re-created community institutions and practices to ensure the reproduction of households and communities. Although peasants had some command over their production activities and relations, the autonomy to fully control their economic circumstances was restricted by national policies and processes. I argue that this constrained autonomy, as well as reliance on the community for survival, engendered the collective organization of these peasants during the 1970s.Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses u26 Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1995 .G67. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 34-06, page: 2186. Adviser: Lynne Phillips. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1995.