ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of indigenous residents as planners of their own lives who seek to claim their indigenous right to the city through a variety of self-help, negotiation, and contestation practices. It discusses how different people involved in a variety of residential organisations in the neighbourhoods of Chasquipampa and Ovejuyo in La Paz claim their indigenous rights to the city. The chapter suggests that indigenous residents are not passive actors but active planners of their own lives who seek to fulfil their interests and demands and, in so doing, claim their indigenous right to the city. It argues that historically marginalised indigenous communities are themselves characterised by uneven power relations and that it is community leaders who obtain the relevant social and political resources to negotiate with government authorities and engage in participation processes. The chapter also suggests that exclusionary practices within indigenous communities no longer remain unchallenged.
