Indigenous identity, natural resources, and contentious politics in Bolivia: a disaggregated conflict analysis; 2000-2011

Journal article | Zeitschriftenartikel

How do natural resources and ethnic identity interact to incite or to mitigate social conflict? This article argues that high-value natural resources can act as an important catalyst for the politicization of ethnic, specifically indigenous identity, and contribute to social conflict as they limit the malleability of identity frames and raise the stakes of confrontations. We test this argument using unique subnational data from Bolivian provinces. Drawing on Bolivian newspaper reports, we code conflict events for all of the 112 provinces from 2000 to 2011. We join this conflict data with information on local ethnic composition from the census, the political representation of ethnic groups at the national level, as well as geo-spatial information on gas deposits. Using time-series cross-sectional count models, we show a significant conflict-promoting effect of the share of indigenous people in provinces with gas reserves, but not without.

Object Details

• ISSN: 1552-3829
• Extent: Seite(n): 301-332
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Status: Veröffentlichungsversion; begutachtet (peer reviewed)

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Comparative political studies, 48(3)

Classification and Topics

• Subject: Politikwissenschaft ; politische Willensbildung, politische Soziologie, politische Kultur ; Erdgas ; Ethnizität ; Minderheitenpolitik ; ethnische Gruppe ; natürliche Ressourcen ; sozialer Konflikt ; Bolivien ; Politisierung ; kulturelle Identität ; Mobilisierung ; indigene Völker

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Mähler, Annegret ; Pierskalla, Jan H.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Vereinigtes Königreich
• (when): 2015

Further information

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414014545012
• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-428171
• Rights: GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. Bibliothek Köln
• Last update: 21.06.2024, 4:27 PM CEST