Toward a Decolonial Alternative to Development? The Emergence and Shortcomings of Vivir Bien as State Policy in Bolivia in the Era of Globalization

Abstract

There is an urgent demand for the examination of the critical perceptions of new kinds of ‘development’ which are emerging in the Global South in response to—and often opposed to—the global capitalist political economy. This article discusses the case of contemporary Bolivia in which indigenous political alternatives have emerged as the resistance to economic globalization and the powers of capital accumulation, as well as to the cultural and epistemological commitments of the Western order. Through an ethnographic approach, it examines the emergence and shortcomings of the notion of vivir bien—a local, decolonial, indigenous concept of good life—as state policy. It argues that despite its transformative potential, the translation of vivir bien discourses into state practices has not been, to a large degree, achieved.

Keywords:

• vivir bien
• alternatives to development
• decolonization
• indigeneity
• resource extraction
• Bolivia

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the anonymous reviewers for excellent commentaries that allowed greatly to improve the article. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Jeremy Gould, Maaria Seppänen, Elina Oinas, and all my informants in Bolivia.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Considering possible harm that controversial points of views might cause for informants in current or future political scenarios, I have opted anonymity with most of them. I refer solely to such politicians or scholars whose views are publicly known to most Bolivians with their own names.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Finnish Graduate School of Development Studies (DEVESTU) and the Academy of Finland (258235).

Notes on contributors

Eija Maria Ranta

Eija Ranta is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki. She holds a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Helsinki. She has conducted ethnographic fieldwork on social movements, alternative development paradigms, development policy-making, and state formation processes in Bolivia and Kenya.