Geographical Conflict in Bolivia

My dissertation explores the Comité Pro Santa Cruz, a Bolivian rightwing social movement which developed to promote the political and economic interests of the eastern lowland department of Santa Cruz’s white and mestizo “elite” social groups (those of predominantly European descent who are also members of powerful political and business networks). I examine how in order to legitimate contemporary claims to political, economic, and territorial rights, the CPSC is constructing its own historical-geographical imaginary, one that describes a lengthy regional struggle for both recognition and autonomy from the Bolivian state, while simultaneously claiming a shared indigenous cultural and territorial identity with lowland indigenous peoples. My research posits that the CPSC established their discourse of identity by 1) manipulating language, 2) through use of both mainstream and social media, and 3) through depictions of space. My dissertation explores how each of these methods are engaged by the organization to achieve their greater political, economic, and territorial goals. In spite of their continued and growing importance throughout the region, as Perreault (2008) suggests, there has been little work by geographers on rightwing or elite social movements. Seeking to advance research on rightwing and elite social movements, my dissertation explores how the CPSC enacts its discourse in ways that attempt to naturalize racial, social, and spatial boundaries. My research employs Foucauldian discourse analysis through an examination of Bolivian Population Census and media data (with a predominant focus on social media), analysis of cartographic representations (both contemporary and archival), and data has gathered during personal fieldwork in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Underpinned by geographic literature on social movements politics and geographic mappings, my dissertation provides new ways of visualizing rightwing and elite discourse. I find that this type of analysis can broaden our understanding of cultural identity politics and how movements of both the left and right use identity to obtain political, economic, and territorial rights.