Neoextractivism and neodevelopmentalism. Actors and disputes around lithium extraction in Bolivia: Neoextractivism and neodevelopmentalism. Actors and disputes around lithium extraction in Bolivia

Abstract

This paper tracks key moments in the process of lithium exploration, exploitation, and industrialization in Bolivia, while describing and interpreting the disputes among the different social actors involved. In order to understand the advances and setbacks in this process, Bolivian political, economic, and social history needs be considered jointly. Therefore, conflicts and contradictions within the lithium industrialization project implemented by the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) administration are analyzed from a perspective which integrates macroeconomic, environmental, and social considerations. Following Maristella Svampa (2015), the working hypothesis of this paper states that Bolivia shows the paradoxical combination of a neodevelopmentalist, neoextractivist economic model paired with a State which positions itself along the lines of social progressivism and wealth redistribution. Hence, the case of lithium industrialization sheds some light on the tensions between these models, the actors which incarnate them, and the goals each one of them seeks to achieve.