‘An Indigenous person with a smartphone is not Indigenous.’ I heard similar statements several times while working and living in the Andean region. Particularly among certain national elites, but also foreigners, a very stereotypical idea of Indigenous peoples is not uncommon, which is often associated with imaginaries of primitive, exotic and remote alterities. Pascal Lupien's book, Indigenous Civil Society in Latin America: Collective Action in the Digital Age, not only offers evidence that Indigenous peoples and technology are far from incompatible but provides a convincing analytical framework to understand how information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become a key means of public engagement for Indigenous civil society.
Without losing their distinctive traits, Indigenous peoples are constantly evolving and transforming. In the twenty-first century, they are adapting in many ways to the globalised, technology-centred world, particularly through new collective-action strategies. In this lively and engaging portrait of Indigenous movements, the often-evoked tensions between past and present vanish and the dichotomy between old and new movements moves naturally to the background. The spotlights can then converge towards a much more interesting endeavour: the exploration of the complex and diverse architecture of Indigenous civil society, where savvy digital communication skills interweave with communitarian institutions, participatory and consensual decision-making and political lobbying and negotiation.
Indeed, Lupien's book is much more than an analysis of the technological performances of ethnic groups in Latin America. As the author himself recounts, he was dissuaded from this purpose by his very interlocutors who prompted him to consider technology as but one means within a complex array of tactics and historically grounded practices for social mobilisation. The idea of ‘multiscalar positioning’ – one of the most innovative contributions of the book – is proposed as a conceptual tool to capture this complexity. It is an effective way of describing how Indigenous political action occurs across multiple and overlapping scales (intercommunal, national, international, virtual and physical) through a range of, often simultaneous, strategies and tactics (from disruption to negotiation and collaboration).
The book's argument and theoretical contribution is grounded on extensive empirical evidence gathered during four years of fieldwork across three countries: Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile. The timeframe of interest is mainly the latter half of the 2010s. Through an inductive approach, five key activities are identified which constitute the core of Indigenous civil society action across the three countries: political participation; resource mobilisation; communication and public relations; identity promotion and socialisation; and supporters’ mobilisation. Research relies on both traditional qualitative methods (interviews and participatory observation) but also, remarkably, on an active engagement with Indigenous leaders. This participatory component had the double purpose of informing the research process using inputs from key stakeholders and of producing results that could feed into Indigenous organisations’ knowledge and decision-making. The book also integrates the results of a qualitative analysis of social-media content produced by Indigenous organisations, state agencies and mainstream media between 2018 and 2019.
The three empirical chapters (organised by country) display rich and multifaced portraits of Indigenous civil society through the voices of activists and grassroots organisations. We follow an Indigenous woman's daily commute through Quito's colonial streets, which becomes the journey of her political and social engagement. We see through the eyes of Mapuche activists the unprecedented scene of Indigenous flags waving in the hands of non-Indigenous protesters in the streets of Santiago de Chile as a symbol of resistance. We sit in the waiting room of government offices in La Paz, ‘watched over by a life-sized figure of Evo Morales’ (p. 116), waiting to meet newly appointed Indigenous civil servants. Through a mosaic of interview quotes and vivid images of Latin American displays of public action as well as everyday lives across the Andean geographic and political landscapes, a detailed analysis of Indigenous organisations’ key activities and evolving strategies unfold.
The comparative dimension of the analysis, which remains mostly in the background throughout the empirical sections, becomes central in the last two chapters. Here Lupien asks how ‘the different paths taken in Bolivia, Ecuador and Chile matter when it comes to the ways in which CSOs [civil society organisations] engage in the public sphere in the XXI century’ (p. 188). Indigenous civil society in the three countries displays similarities but also key differences. While the push for coordination and internationalisation was felt across the region, Ecuadorean Indigenous peoples were particularly successful at creating a solid pyramidal structure with an umbrella organisation at the top. This has allowed them to form a unified front in times of crisis and gain political strength. Quite different is the situation in Bolivia, where a very active Indigenous movement has suffered from deep fragmentation in recent years. While Indigenous sectors made important political gains under Evo Morales, his administration is also considered responsible for strategically fuelling tensions and playing organisations off against each other to fight internal dissent. As expected, the case of Chile is the most divergent among the three. Here Indigenous organisations have historically been weak and politically marginalised. The absence of spaces for political engagement has meant that they have often opted for disruptive action, although more diversified strategies have emerged in recent years. Chilean organisations are also the most active and experienced in the use of ICTs, with Bolivia at the opposite end of the spectrum and Ecuador somewhere in between the two.
Lupien's book is an insightful and solid investigation on the complexity of Indigenous civil society. The comparative dimension could have perhaps been further exploited for theoretical purposes and analytical depth. Yet the book has the merit of empirically dismantling a lot of the stereotypes and exoticisms about Indigenous peoples while at the same time offering new conceptual tools that can find wider application in contentious politics and social movement studies beyond Latin America. After reading the book, one is left with no doubt about the political agency and mobilisation capacity of Latin American Indigenous movements as one of the most eloquent expressions of what René Zavaleta famously called the sociedad abigarrada.
