ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the institutional and legislative structures that currently enable state governance of cultural and linguistic diversity in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. The neo-liberal state constitutional reforms of the 1990s contrast with the reforms instituted by Constituent Assembly in the 2000s, with, in Ecuador and Bolivia, greater participation of the Indigenous organisations. The chapter draws out the key comparative features of Indigenous language policy across the three countries. Dr Howard examines the discourses and bureaucratic methods of language policy design and implementation at the macro level, considered in the light of the concepts of language regimes and regimentation, and technologies of power. She identifies the ‘paradoxes of diversity’ revealed in the shifting official discourses over time, and from one state ideological juncture to another. The technologies of power are also at work in the territorialisation and mapping of languages; and in Indigenous language proficiency testing and training of public servants.
