Grassroots Politics and Oil Culture in Venezuela: The Revolutionary Petro-State

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This book presents an ethnographic study of how grassroots activism in Venezuela during the Chavez presidency can be understood in relation to the country’s history as a petro-state. Taking the contested relationship between the popular sectors and the Venezuelan state as a point of departure, Iselin Asedotter Stronen explores how notions such as class, race, state, bureaucracy, popular politics, capitalism, neoliberalism, consumption, oil wealth, and corruption gained salience in the Bolivarian process. A central argument is that the Bolivarian process was an attempt to challenge the practices, ideas, and values inherited from Venezuela’s historical development as an oil-producing state. Drawing on rich ethnographic material from Caracas’ shantytowns, state institutions, as well as everyday life and public culture, Stronen explores the complexities and challenges in fostering deep social and political change. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work’s license are retained by the author or authors.