<p>The Juntas Vecinales of El Alto portray a telling picture of the current process of societal change inBolivia. Formed to attend the collective needs of indigenous migrants striving to settle down on theoutskirts of the capital, the Juntas Vecinales have grown as an intrinsic part of El Alto becomingsignificant socio-political actors and part of the indigenous social movements propelling the processof change in Bolivia. Their traditional function of supervising public policy by pressuring serviceproviders to attend their demands is commonly known as the practice of social control. A functionthat was institutionalized in the nineties with neoliberal inspired citizenship reforms ofdecentralization. The dynamic relation between the informal and formal branches of social controlis particularly evident in El Alto as the Federation of Juntas Vecinales and the legal supervisinginstitution called the Vigilance Committee hold each branch. This paper presents a case study on theformal and informal actions and activities that define the current role of the Juntas Vecinales inrelevance to their history and to the political and social context of Bolivia today. My main findingpresents an unanimous rejection of the formal branch of social control and the predominance oftraditional methods of pressure actions as the only means of attending grassroots demands.</p> / MFS uppsats

The Juntas Vecinales of El Alto portray a telling picture of the current process of societal change inBolivia. Formed to attend the collective needs of indigenous migrants striving to settle down on theoutskirts of the capital, the Juntas Vecinales have grown as an intrinsic part of El Alto becomingsignificant socio-political actors and part of the indigenous social movements propelling the processof change in Bolivia. Their traditional function of supervising public policy by pressuring serviceproviders to attend their demands is commonly known as the practice of social control. A functionthat was institutionalized in the nineties with neoliberal inspired citizenship reforms ofdecentralization. The dynamic relation between the informal and formal branches of social controlis particularly evident in El Alto as the Federation of Juntas Vecinales and the legal supervisinginstitution called the Vigilance Committee hold each branch. This paper presents a case study on theformal and informal actions and activities that define the current role of the Juntas Vecinales inrelevance to their history and to the political and social context of Bolivia today. My main findingpresents an unanimous rejection of the formal branch of social control and the predominance oftraditional methods of pressure actions as the only means of attending grassroots demands. / MFS uppsats