Aymara-Traders and the Bolivian Market for Electronic and Digital Devices in a Regional and Global Context

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The research project deals with the social and cultural construction and transformation of the market for electronic and digital devices in Bolivia. The market is analysed as a web of relations between a large number of local traders, the small national Business elite and Transnational Corporations. The main group of observation are local traders of indigenous origin (Aymara) who strongly influence importation, wholesale and retail trade. The organisations and practical knowledge of indigenous rural-urban migrants meet the logics of a highly dynamic and modern market. Moreover, this group is especially interesting in the political context of indigenous president Evo Morales and within economic and political developments in the region. Besides the aim to produce ethnographic knowledge on the economic reality of Bolivia, the project persues specific theoretical aims: On the one hand, it aims at contributing to the discussions on the embeddedness of economic action in local institutions and cultural worlds (this includes the question of Multiple Markets and Capitalisms) and to debates and concepts on social interconnections and frictions (Anna Tsing) along transnational distribution chains. On the other hand, it deals with economic practices, gender relations and cultural identities of a young generation of traders, topics that address the existence, peculiarity and persistence of a Aymara-Bourgeousie in pluri-national Bolivia.