ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study describing the establishment of a local indigenous education system in the community of Raqaypampa, Bolivia. The case is based on a long-term project initiated in 1983, providing a longitudinal picture of how the educational systems and reforms in Bolivia have changed over the years as well as of the political dynamics at the local level and the national level. The chapter describes some traits of the last 30 years that are fundamental to understanding the contradictory outcomes of an ethno-development project. Using the concept of governmentality, the case study shows how a disciplinary institution - the school - becomes a field of dispute between two quite different security frameworks: that of the indigenous community and that managed by the state. The indigenous educational system became part of a wide local effort to attain political autonomy, reinforcing their ethnic frontiers.
