Equal Footing: 2010

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Publications, presentations, and teaching

It's been quite a while since we posted, but we've been busy nonetheless, and our work has resulted in another conference presentation (in Brazil), a set of four linked/translated articles about Ecuador's constitution and battles for natural resources, and a forthcoming peer-reviewed article based on our 60 interviews in El Alto and La Paz. It's taken a LOT of patience and revising and resubmitting (and revising and resubmitting) to get this far and we are now nearing the end of this project's epic trajectory. We plan to have the last major publication -- a bi-lingual online photo essay co-authored by James Lerager and Jesús Valencia -- finished and published by April 2010.

The other notable outcome of our work is that we are currently co-teaching an introductory course at Macalester College, "Latin America through Women's Eyes," that builds on the rapport and expertise we developed while studying women's leadership in the Andes. It is a fitting book end, since Nicole and I met through the same course in September 2006, when she took it as her first class at Macalester.

Here are the citations of the recent and forthcoming items:

“Presence, Status, Respect, Voice: Gender Dynamics and Anti-Privatization Movements in Bolivia and Ecuador,” paper presented at the International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association (Rio de Janeiro, June 2009).

“Correa vs. Social Movements: Showdown in Ecuador,” NACLA Report on the Americas 42, 5 (September 2009): 21-24. Available at nacla.org/node/6124.

“Correa vs. Movimientos Sociales: Conflicto en Ecuador,” translated by César Flores, NACLA Report on the Americas 42, 5 (September 2009). Available at nacla.org/node/6319.

“Under Fire: Ecuador’s Acción Ecológica,” NACLA Report on the Americas 42, 5 (September 2009). Available at nacla.org/node/6095.

“Bajo Fuego: Acción Ecológica de Ecuador,” translated by César Flores, NACLA Report on the Americas 42, 5 (September 2009). Available at nacla.org/node/6318.

“Women’s Voices on the Executive Council: Popular Organizations and Resource Battles in Bolivia and Ecuador” (with photographs by James Lerager), Latin American Perspectives 37, 4 (forthcoming July 2010).

The Project

Women on the Frontlines:

Resource Wars, Popular Movements, and Gender Dynamics in Bolivia and Ecuador

During the last decade, Bolivia and Ecuador have been marked by “resource wars” in which mass mobilizations have challenged the neoliberal privatization of resources such as water, land, petroleum, and natural gas. In the past two years, Bolivian President Evo Morales and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa have been critical of privatization, aligning themselves with the goals of popular movements. Increasingly, national political agendas are set by mobilized popular movements that aim to redirect control over resources from private multinational corporations to alternate forms of local control. For Bolivia and Ecuador, these resource wars thus mark fundamental shifts in concepts of national sovereignty and popular participation in democratic processes.

Yet the specific role of women leaders within these movements has been largely overlooked. How have women leaders shaped the struggles of these popular movements? Internally, does female leadership yield qualitatively distinct decisions about movement governance and strategy? And externally, does the gender of leaders shape interactions with government and the success of demands?

The research project, born out of a collaboration between Macalester College Political Science/Latin American Studies Professor Paul Dosh and student Nicole Kligerman ’10, intends to answer these questions to explore the changing role of women within the political sphere. Our research will primarily be conducted in La Paz/El Alto, Bolivia and Quito, Ecuador.