Subterranean Matters

In Subterranean Matters, Andrea Marston examines the ongoing history of Bolivian mining cooperatives, an economic formation that has been central to Bolivian politics and to the countrys economy. Marston outlines how mining cooperatives occupy a contradictory place in Bolivian politics. They were major backers of left-wing president Evo Morales in 2006 and participated significantly in the crafting of the constitution that would declare Bolivia a plurinational state. At the same time, many Bolivians regard mining cooperatives as thieves because they derive personal profits from the subterranean mineral resources that are the legal inheritance of all Bolivians. Through extensive fieldwork underground in Bolivian cooperative mines, Marston explores how these minersand the subterranean spaces they occupyembody the tensions at the heart of Bolivias plurinational project. Marston shows how persistent commitment to nation and nationalism is a shared feature of left-wing and right-wing politics in Bolivia, illustrating how bodies, identities, and resources fit into this complex political matrix.