Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Contentious Belonging: Video Production and Indigenous Participation within the Bolivian State

在本计画中，研究者将分析玻利维亚原住民影片的制作与流通，以了解原住民如何在政治上组织起来，以及如何发展他们对玻利维亚国家的期望。在玻利维亚政治激烈竞争的舞台上，原住民制作的影片让人们注意到他们认为相关、必要、可能、想像或理想的事物。本研究建立在最近人类学关于阶级、性别和种族背景下抵抗的局限性的基础上，通过当地的政治和文化实践来观察国家。在12个月的民族志工作中，研究人员将分析土著视觉媒体如何有助于想象与玻利维亚国家的不同关系。这项研究将包括审查玻利维亚土著录像制作的历史及其与土著运动历史的关系；参与观察视频制作和传播；对制片人、培训师和观众的采访；以及视频的视觉分析。这项工作的一个重要焦点将是纪录片和虚构视频中的政治语言，注意土著媒体制作者如何将自己置于民族文化和国家的关系中。这项研究增加了学术和政治努力，以了解代表性不足的群体的历史状况，并加强他们的知名度。除了正常的学术渠道外，研究人员还计划了两种主要的广泛传播结果的形式：(1)与土著传播者的研讨会；(2)制作一张载有研究过程和结果摘要的互动光碟，以西班牙文和英文向公众传播。

In this project, the researcher will analyze the production and circulation of indigenous videos in Bolivia to understand how indigenous people organize politically and develop their expectations of the Bolivian state. In the highly contested arena of Bolivian politics, videos produced by native people bring attention to what they see as relevant, necessary, possible, imaginable, or desirable. This research builds on recent anthropology about the limitations of resistance in the context of class, gender and race, by looking at the state through local political and cultural practices. In twelve months of ethnographic work, the researcher will analyze how indigenous visual media contribute to imagining different relationships to the Bolivian state. The research will include examining the history of indigenous video production in Bolivia and its relationship to the history of indigenous movements; participant observation of video production and circulation; interviews with producers, trainers and audiences; and visual analyses of videos. One important focus of this work will be on political language in both documentary and fictional videos, noting how indigenous media makers situate themselves in relation to national culture and the state. This research adds to academic and political efforts to understand the historical conditions of underrepresented groups and to strengthen their visibility. In addition to the normal scholarly outlets, the researcher plans two main forms of broadly disseminating the results: (1) a workshop with indigenous communicators; and (2) an interactive cd-rom with extracts of the research process and results for public dissemination in both Spanish and English.