Here is the prompt:
Paper prompt #3. Paper due at class time, uploaded onto our Canvas site, Tuesday April 9th.
In the last sentence of Chapter Two, Carwil Bjork-James writes – with my small edits in
parentheses to turn it into a statement for our purposes: “(I demonstrate) that the process by
which disruptive grassroots mobilization interacts with the spatiality of the city (help) to
constitute a collective subject capable and worthy of demanding new ways of being represented
politically.”
This encapsulates some of the major arguments and themes of the book. I would like you to write
a short 3-page (1.5 spacing) paper that explains this perspective by explaining each dimension
and their connections, carefully – 1) disruptive grassroots mobilization, 2) interacting with the
spatiality of the city, 3) constituting a collective subject, 4) demanding new ways of being
represented. What does each aspect mean, how does he explain them, and how do they work
together? Use concrete examples from the text, films, and discussions and cite the source.
Here are readings and films that you should reference for the paper:
Film: “Even the Rain” (También la Lluvia, 2010)
Tues March 19 – How People in the 21st century Make a Revolution
Read: Carwil Bjork-James, The Sovereign Street: Making Revolution in Urban Bolivia, (University of Arizona Press, 2020), Introduction, Download Introduction,pp. 4-38.
Wikipedia on the ‘pink tide’ or the shift to the Left across Latin America during this period of Bolivia’s gas and water wars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tide
Thurs March 21 – Urban Space as Site of Contention
Readings: The Sovereign Street, Chapter One Download Chapter One“Urban Space Claiming and Revolutionary Events,” pp 39-65.
Tues March 26 – How protests flower into something bigger
Readings: Chapter Two Download Chapter Two“’This, This Is How We Have to All Fight Together’: The Water War as Precedent and Prototype,” pp. 66-85 and Chapter Four Download Chapter Four“The Sovereign Street: How Protests Become ‘the Voice of the People’,” p. 114-146. Paper #3 prompts handed out
the 9 minute news clip I sent via announcements on Thursday (it starts on the 24th minute):
https://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/19/the_cochabamba_water_wars_marcella_oliveraLinks to an external site.
Paper prompt #3Download Paper prompt #3
Thurs March 28 – the battle over indigenous rights
Readings: Choose one or another to read (or both if you’re ambitious): Chapter Five Download Chapter Five“’We’re No Longer Tenants’: Indigenous Bodies Defiantly out of Place,” pp. 147-166 OR Chapter Six Download Chapter Six“Who Owns the City?: Race and Space During the Catastrophic Stalemate,” pp. 167-188.
short videos and talk by Oscar Olivera: http://cochabambawaterwars.weebly.com/the-players
Tues April 2 – nothing comes easy!
Reading: Chapter Seven Download Chapter Seven, “A House Divided: Mobilization and Countermobilization Within the Plurinational State,” pp. 189-212.
Hi folks, aside from reading this chapter, and thinking about your paper, please also check out the 2009 Bolivian constitution and bring to class a few intriguing articles in it that we didn’t discuss in class: https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Bolivia_2009 Links to an external site.
short news story in the UK Guardian on the new president of Bolivia and his ‘fight’ with Morales and MAS: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/04/bolivia-president-luis-arce-evo-morales
Thurs April 4 – Review for paper #3
One more optional reading: an interview with social movement leader Oscar Olivera who talks about what then-President Evo Morales did not fulfill from his promises to the Water/Gas Wars activists, and what the majority of people still expect from government and society: https://upsidedownworld.org/archives/bolivia/democracy-from-below-in-bolivia-an-interview-with-oscar-olivera/
Come to class with your paper thesis and outline (have a separate page for this please) for discussion and preparation.
Please let me know if you have questions.
