Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

In the introductory chapter, Strønen argues for the need for a historicized and context-sensitive bottom-up approach to understanding how the Bolivarian process unfolded in the interface between popular sector activist and the Venezuelan state during Hugo Chávez’s presidency. Furthermore, Strønen argues that the present book is the first ethnographic study of grassroots politics in the Chávez era which is analyzed through what the author coins “the lens of oil,” an exploration focusing on how Venezuelan social, cultural and political formations, values and practices were shaped by the country’s history as a petro-state, and how these formations were challenged, contested and transformed during the Chávez era. The chapter also outlines the ethnographic field where the analysis is located as well as the methodological approaches deployed.

Providing historical context to the subsequent analysis of grassroots politics and oil culture in the Chávez era, Strønen offers a reading of Venezuelan history focusing on how the country was formed as an oil state. The chapter shows how the oil industry, dominated by foreign oil companies, played a central role in shaping political dynamics throughout the twentieth century ever since the regime of Juan Vicente Gómez. Moreover, the continuous presence of foreign, mainly US oil companies, was central for shaping social and cultural values, practices and class identities. Subsequently, Strønen shows why and how control over oil became a key axis of political conflict when Chávez came to power, and why resource nationalism and distribution of oil rents became a cornerstone in Bolivarian ideology.

In this chapter, Strønen argues that top-down analysis of Hugo Chávez as a “populist” fails to properly explain why his political project attracted such mass support. In its place, Strønen offers an analysis of the various forms of popular sector struggle in the decades leading up to Chávez’s election, showing how popular support for the Bolivarian process was informed by a long history of struggle from below. This analysis is followed by an account of shantytown residents’ memories of state violence, poverty and marginalization during the Puntofijo era, in particular focusing on the political and social crisis leading up to the massacre in 1989.

The chapter opens with an ethnographic description of the wealthy eastern suburbs of Caracas, setting the stage for a discussion about the spatial and social effects of economic inequality in Caracas. It is followed by an analysis of race, racism and class identities in Venezuela, and how these issues emerged as key contentious issues in the political polarization between Chavez’s supporters and opponents. The chapter also analyzes people’s own explanations and narratives of why they supported Chávez’s political project, concluding that Chávez’s mass support can best be explained through a “thick,” bottom-up understanding of how the Bolivarian project resonated with popular sector identity politics, social grievances and political agencies.

In this chapter, Strønen offers an analysis of community politics in popular sector neighborhoods in the Chávez era. The chapter starts with an outlay of the ideological and legal context for participatory politics through state-community co-operation, focusing in particular on the communal councils (). Subsequently, the chapter offers a detailed analysis of a prolonged case of community mobilization in the parish of 23 de Enero, revolving around the construction of a local hospital. This case confounds simplistic understandings of community politics through showing how heterogeneous sets of actors tried to position themselves in the local political game, at the same time as the community sought to position itself vis-à-vis the state through the political and ideological ethos of (popular power).

The chapter opens with a discussion of how anthropological approaches to studying the state help us better understand the Venezuelan state under Hugo Chávez. This discussion is followed by an analysis of how historical and contemporary political and social dynamics inside the Venezuelan state apparatus shaped the ways in which the Bolivarian process unfolded. It shows how conflicts between different actors within the state apparatus, including those between pro-government workers and opponents to the government, shaped how people conceptualized the political struggle for realizing the Bolivarian aim of state transformation. Consequently, Strønen shows how popular sector activists resorted to habituated practices of drawing on personalized networks in order to access and transform the state in accordance with the ideals of participative politics from below.

In this chapter, Strønen focuses on the interface between popular politics and state politics through exploring the role of the so-called . These are lower-level public officials whose role is to provide support and guidance to the communal councils. Strønen argues that the promotores integrales occupied a hybrid position as neither fully representatives of the state nor fully representatives of the community. Drawing on detailed ethnographic explorations, this chapter shows how the communal councils developed through the ethos of “either we invent or we err,” and how popular sector knowledges and socialities were given emphasis both by the state and by the popular sector activists. This chapter also explores how hierarchies of power were negotiated between popular sector activists and state officials.

In this chapter, Strønen teases out how templates revolving around oil wealth, money and consumption were articulated in Bolivarian discourse as a social critique of Venezuela’s historical experiences with extractive capitalism and neoliberalism. Moreover, the chapter shows how symbolic modes of material and cultural consumption gained salience in the ideological and political polarization between supporters and opponents of the Bolivarian process. This discussion illuminates not only local interpretations of global templates associated with modernity and development and their deep influence from US culture, but also how popular struggles for converting Bolivarian ideology into new political and social moralities were confounded by ambivalent practices and imaginaries linked to wealth, consumption and class struggle.

This chapter focuses on collective consumption of oil revenues in the form of social spending during the Chávez era. Strønen shows how different social policies generated subjective experiences of poverty reduction and increased welfare, before she proceeds with a historicized discussion of how the habituated political culture of state paternalism and strategic clientelism was both contested and reproduced. Moreover, the chapter discusses how the imaginary of “the people’s oil” and “my drop of oil” was ambivalently conceptualized within the Bolivarian process both at the level of the state as well as at the grassroots. This generated multi-faceted conceptualizations of how resources should be administered and distributed and who were “deserving” recipients of oil wealth.

The chapter opens with a discussion of how anthropological approaches to corruption can help us better understand its interwovenness in a broader political, historical, social and cultural context. Subsequently, Strønen discusses how the issue of corruption was conceptualized and contested in Bolivarian discourses and in the context of community politics. This discussion is developed on a backdrop of a historicized account of not only how corruption gained salience as a social practice in Venezuela in the context of its colonial and post-colonial development trajectories, but also how “corruption” as a social template forms part of a broader discourse about the amoralities and social ills that historically have been ingrained into the country’s social and political body.