Indigenous Rights to the City Struggles in Bolivia

Abstract

This chapter challenges politico-legal representations of indigeneity as static social category associated predominantly with rurality, ancestral lands, and traditions but not with cities and modern ways of living. By deploying a combined intra- and inter-categorical intersectionality approach and drawing on empirical research in two peri-urban neighbourhoods in La Paz (Bolivia), it shifts attention to diverse articulations of indigeneity articulated by a growing number of people, with distinct backgrounds in terms of age, class, gender and political position, who self-identify as indigenous in urban areas. The chapter demonstrates that urban indigeneity has multiple and conflicting connotations, leading people to articulate distinct needs, interests, and rights-based claims. It also highlights power imbalances between and within urban indigenous communities, which often lead to the exclusion of women and youth. Reflecting on these insights, the chapter calls for more inclusive policy and planning approaches which, firstly, recognise indigenous peoples wherever they live, including in urban areas, and, secondly, embrace conflict and challenge power imbalances within indigenous communities and between indigenous communities and other stakeholder groups.