Orphans of the State: Conceptualizing Citizenship, Space, and Kinship in Bolivian Municipal Politics

Abstract

In an urban barrio on the outskirts of a Bolivian city, the municipal government engages in a variety of techniques to regulate and manage the illegal settlers and the lands they occupy on the urban periphery. These forms of governmentality are underscored by a paternalist discourse that enjoins barrio residents to embrace urban inclusion as part of a generalized urban Bolivian family. Barrio residents desire such inclusion as a path to citizenship and the socioeconomic rights that such belonging entails, but are skeptical of paternalist rhetoric and the claims of Bolivian politicians to be 'good fathers' to their barrio children. This article examines the engagement between municipal leaders and barrio residents in the struggle to subject one urban neighborhood to state authority.