Subterranean matters : cooperative mining and resource nationalism in plurinational Bolivia

"Centering the experiences of small-scale tin miners organized into mining cooperatives, Subterranean Matters explores the relationship between labor, geological materialities, and expressions of nationalism in contemporary Bolivia. Mining cooperatives occupy a contradictory place in Bolivian politics. They were major backers of left-wing president Evo Morales in 2006 and participated significantly both in Morales' election campaign, as well as in the subsequent crafting of the constitution that would declare Bolivia a plurinational state. But they are also seen as neoliberal formations built on the ashes of Bolivia's old left progressive miner's unions. These contemporary cooperatives are regarded by many Bolivians as thieves of the country's mineral patrimony. Through extensive fieldwork underground in Bolivian cooperative mines, Andrea Marston explores how these miners-and the subterranean spaces they occupy-embody the tensions at the heart of the plurinational project. Subterranean Matters is a major contribution to the understanding of the new cultural and economic politics of mining in Bolivia and of the potent role the non-living matter of the earth plays in shaping national identity."