Corporate Entity and Collective Citizenship in Bolivia: An Ethnographic Perspective on Identification Papers and Formation of Public Spaces

One of the specificities of the Bolivian social formation is the coexistence of social and territorial organizations with a longstanding historical tradition. The current analysis focuses on the formation of citizenship in Bolivian society, in which the collective dimension is affirmed in the struggles, demands, and exercise of rights, as well as in the various modalities of extension of rights stemming from the state. The current study argues that during the neoliberal period in Bolivia, a series of policies oriented towards restructuring of the state deepened the collective dimension of citizenship as both status and participation, with the certificate of incorporation as the maximum symbolic expression.