Abstract

In this seminar, I will present the approach of my Ph.D. dissertation by first benchmarking the selected population within the Bolivian recent history, interlinking it with the research aims. In Bolivia, the political changes in the last 20 years have called the attention of development agencies which, together with public academic institutions, have engaged debates around issues such as ethnic identity and economic systems, including internal migration as a tool for the development of society.  The socio-political literature, however, renders internal migrants as frustrated citizens with tyrannical tendencies in their families and unable to contribute to their communities. This project challenges this idea by looking at how they construct their cognitive schemas for achievement throughout their life cycle and how these achievements transcend these preconceptions. My Dissertation will provide a nuanced context of internal migration that will try to rise above ethnic classification, focusing on first, second, and third-generation migrants that have settled in two two-million mountainous cities: La Paz and El Alto who come from two “migration nexus” located in the Andean Highlands (Colquencha, and Tiwanacu). I will apply the Life-History method to establish a coherent migrants’ Life Trajectories with the purpose of establishing my informant’s conceptualization of Achievements, using the cybernetic concept of “ultrastability” as an analytical tool.