Boliviens Staat im Bilde. Postkoloniale Repräsentationsverhältnisse und der strategische Einsatz von Kultur in der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit

Abstract

Abstract

Bolivia’s state of imagination: Postcolonial regimes of representation and the strategic use of culture in development. In the context of the ongoing process of postcolonial transformation in Bolivia under the indigenous president Evo Morales, notions of state, nation and citizenship are being redefined. In this article we explore how the international development agency UNDP-Bolivia positions itself, through a strategic use of cultural politics, in the field of identity politics in order to impose a new concept of the state. By focusing on the UNDP report „The state of the state“ and the documentary „The state of things“, which is an integral part of the UNDP project, we argue that even though the overall project imposes a mestizo perspective, when it is implemented in different cultural and political fields with opposed practical logics, ambiguous representations and performances result.