Between the mine and the farm: livelihood diversification and social differentiation in the Bolivian highlands

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes livelihood diversification and social differentiation in the Bolivian highlands. It argues that peasants’ increased dependence on mining is undermining the material basis of their farming practices and leading to social differentiation which threaten their autonomy, control over their resource base and, ultimately, farming futures. While pluriactivity is necessary to sustain life on the farm, it also actively depletes it. The multiple identities and complex class positions of these smallholders have hindered forms of organized resistance. Mining is part of agrarian life and these dynamics are important to understand rural livelihoods and agrarian change in the contemporary context.