REVISTA CHAKIÑAN, 2018, Nº.4, ABRIL, (43-52)

ISSN 2550-6722

THE STATE SYSTEM AND THE STATE IDEA IN A MARGINALIZED

NEIGHBOURHOOD OF COCHABAMBA, BOLIVIA.

EL SISTEMA-ESTADO Y LA IDEA-ESTADO EN UN BARRIO

MARGINALIZADO DE COCHABAMBA, BOLIVIA

ABSTRACT

RESUMEN

This paper analyses how the public policies of potable water distribution have inuenced the

perceptions people in Villa Chaquimayu, a marginalized neighbourhood of Cochabamba (Bo-

livia), have about the State. This analysis is based on the theoretical distinction between ‘Sta-

te-system’ and ‘State-idea’ proposed by Abrams (1988). Following Abrams, this paper exa-

mines both the practices the Bolivian State has implemented to deliver potable water to Villa

Chaquimayu (State-system), and the notions people in this neighbourhood have about the State

(State-idea). By using ethnographic data, this investigation shows that a decient public mana-

gement of potable water distribution has negatively inuenced people’s ideas and perceptions

about what is the State.

Keywords: State system, State idea, water rights, peri-urban marginality, calculated informality

Este artículo analiza cómo las políticas públicas de distribución de agua potable han inuencia-

do las percepciones que la población de Villa Chaquimayu, un barrio marginal de Cochabam-

ba, tiene sobre el Estado. Este análisis se basa en la distinción teorética entre “Idea-Estado”

y el “Sistema-Estado” propuesta por Abrams (1998). Siguiendo a Abrams, este estudio analiza

tanto las practicas que el Estado Boliviano ha implementado para distribuir agua potable en

Villa Chaquimayu (Sistema-Estado), y las nociones sobre el Estado que tiene la población de

este barrio (Idea-Estado). A través de información etnográca, este artículo muestra como un

deciente manejo público de la distribución de agua potable ha inuido negativamente en las

ideas y percepciones que la población tiene sobre lo que es el Estado.

Palabras Clave: Sistema-Estado, Idea-Estado, derechos al agua, marginalidad periurbana,

informalidad calculada

Jorge David Mantilla

jorgedavidm3@gmail.com

Universdiad de Otavalo, Ecuador

Fecha recepción: 21/1/2018

Fecha aceptación: 19/3/2018

REVISTA CHAKIÑAN, 2018, Nº.4, ABRIL, (43-52)

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INTRODUCTION

METHODOLOGY

Cochabamba is a city located in the Andes

Central Mountains at an elevation of 2500

meters above sea level. Nowadays, it is the

fourth largest city in Bolivia, with a popu-

lation of 632,013 people (Instituto Nacio-

nal de Estadística 2012:1). One of the most

distinctive characteristics of Cochabamba

is the sharp difference between the predo-

minantly wealthy neighbourhoods of the

northeast zone of the city, and the poor nei-

ghbourhoods of the southern zone. Indeed,

in Cochabamba’s north-eastern area, most

neighbourhoods have optimal infrastructure

and access to basic services, whereas people

in the southern zone have limited access to

basic services and live in precarious condi-

tions (Ledo 2013:10).

In Cochabamba, access to potable water

has been a long-standing problem. During

the early 2000’s the city gained internatio-

nal attention as a series of protests and riots

successfully stopped a governmental plan

to privatize the city’s water supply. Today,

however, potable water distribution is still

a major concern. Actually, in the southern

zone of the city only 22% of people have

access to the public system of potable wa-

ter distribution (Marston 2015:249). In the

neighbourhoods where the State does not

directly provide potable water, people must

nd their own mechanisms to get access to

this resource. This article analyses how the

failure of the State to provide people with

potable water in a marginalized neighbour-

hood (Villa Chaquimayu) inuences people’

imaginaries and perceptions about what is

the State.

This analysis is based on the theoretical dis-

tinction between ‘State-system’ and ‘Sta-

te-idea’ proposed by Abrams (1988). The

latter is a notion about the State ‘projected,

purveyed and variously believed in different

societies at different times’, whereas, the

State-system is a palpable nexus of ‘practice

This research is based on a corpus of data

about the actions, routines, and narratives

people in Villa Chaquimayu use to get ac-

cess to water. The raw data was collected

through the application of a set of qualita-

tive methods, mainly interviews, participant

observation, document analysis and sma-

ll talks. The process of data collection was

developed from mid-January to mid-April

2017 in three phases: 1) exploration pha-

se, oriented to obtain general insights about

the context of the eld, 2) in-depth phase,

oriented to obtain extensive data about the

research questions of this investigation and,

3) wrap-up phase, where the data collected

in previous phases were evaluated and va-

lidated.

The process of eldwork was developed

with two different groups of informants.

First, neighbourhood’s leaders (i.e. leaders

of the local Water Committee and Sindicato

Agrario). Second, residents of Villa Chaqui-

mayu, in general. The perspectives of each

one of these groups were fundamental to un-

derstand the bigger picture of the social dy-

namics in Villa Chaquimayu. The sampling

strategies were different for each group. For

selecting informants among neighbourhood

leaders, a purposive sampling was emplo-

yed, whereas a chain referral sampling was

used for choosing informants among resi-

dents.

and institutional structure centred in govern-

ment’ (Abrams 1988:58).

Following Abrams, this paper analyses both

the practices the Bolivian State has imple-

mented to deliver potable water to Villa

Chaquimayu (State-system), and people’s

notions about the State (State-idea). The re-

sults of this study show that in Villa Cha-

quimayu people’s negative imaginaries and

understandings of what is the State are large-

ly inuenced by a series of negligent public

policies.

REVISTA CHAKIÑAN, 2018, Nº.4, ABRIL, (43-52)

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RESULTS

1. Villa Chaquimayu: Between illegality

and marginality

Villa Chaquimayu is a neighbourhood loca-

ted in the ‘District 9’ of the south zone of

Cochabamba. The inhabitants of Villa Cha-

quimayu have different origins and cultural

backgrounds, nevertheless, they share quite

a few general characteristics in terms of tra-

ditions and language. For instance, people

in Villa Chaquimayu are bilingual, speaking

both Quechua and Spanish in their everyday

life, traditional Bolivian rituals, such as the

The main objective of conducting eldwork

in Villa Chaquimayu was to collect informa-

tion about the ideas, narratives, and practi-

ces people use to get access to water. The

application of ethnographical-qualitative

methods was the most suitable approach to

collect these type of data, as these methods

are ‘intrinsically sensitive to the subtlety and

complexity of human social life in a way

that a quantitative approach cannot be’ (De-

lla Porta y Keating 2008: 300). Simply put,

a qualitative approach allowed me to grasp

people’s perspectives, views, and narratives

about a highly sensible phenomenon.

The information was analysed using Quali-

tative Data Analysis Software (Atlas.ti) and

coded using a combination of open and the-

matic codes. According to Boyatzis (1998),

a thematic code is a pattern found in the in-

formation, which can be ‘generated inducti-

vely from the raw information or generated

deductively from theory or prior research’

(Boyatzis 1998:7).

The thematic codes used in this investigation

were based both on the categories found in

the raw data collected and in categories pre-

sent in the theoretical framework. The main

reason for employing this coding strategy is

that it allowed me to include codes and the-

mes based both on theoretical concepts and

in raw data. In order to preserve my infor-

mants’ condentiality, all names cited in this

article are pseudonyms.

‘challa’, are commonly practised especially

during carnival time, and autochthonous Bo-

livian clothing is widely used in daily life by

females (men usually use more westernised

clothing).

Villa Chaquimayu has serious problems

in infrastructure, sanity, living conditions

and access to basic resources. For instance,

schools and medical centres in the zone are

not enough to sufce the requirements of the

population, there are high levels of pollution,

the public system of potable water distribu-

tion is not present in the neighbourhood, and

its inhabitants do not have legal property ri-

ghts over their houses or land. Most houses

in Villa Chaquimayu are in poor material

conditions.

Nevertheless, there are also a few houses

in very good conditions. These houses are

commonly known as ‘Eurocasas’ (euro-hou-

ses), as many of them were built using re-

mittances. Most roads in Villa Chaquimayu

are dirt and steep streets, which are in poor

conditions. Nevertheless, the main street of

the neighbourhood, Avenida Panamerica-

na, is currently being asphalted. This street

plays an important role in the dynamics of

the neighbourhood, as several small-scale

stores are placed there, including pharma-

cies, restaurants, grocery stores, a medical

centre, schools and hardware stores.

Neighbourhood dynamics in Villa Chaqui-

mayu are highly inuenced by processes of

internal and international migration. In Boli-

via, the phenomenon of internal migration is

closely related to the neoliberal policies im-

plemented by the government from 1985 to

mid-2000’s. These reforms included a relo-

cation of many miners and workers from the

rural areas of the country to the three main

Bolivian cities: Santa Cruz, La Paz and Co-

chabamba (Vacaores 2003:2-5). Indeed, du-

ring the last 30 years, Villa Chaquimayu has

received an important number of migrants

coming from regions such as Chapare, Oru-

ro, Potosí or La Paz. This inux of migrants

caused a very rapid and aggressive process

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of urbanisation in the neighbourhood, main-

ly promoted by a series of loteadores (land

trafckers) who sell land and houses without

title deeds or legal property rights (Torrico y

Walnycki 2015:98).

On the other hand, international migration

also plays an important role inside Villa Cha-

quimayu, as many people from this neigh-

bourhood have migrated to other countries,

especially Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Spain,

and Italy. The processes of international mi-

gration in Bolivia are mainly associated with

the fragility of the Bolivian economy and

the labour-force requirements of countries

with more developed economies (Vacaores

2003:2-5). In Villa Chaquimayu, the people

who have migrated overseas usually send re-

mittances to their families in Bolivia, impro-

ving their economic situation.

The internal organisation of Villa Chaqui-

mayu is based on two grassroots institutions.

The rst one is a Sindicato Agrario (Agrarian

Syndicate). This institution manages issues

related to infrastructure, security, internal

organisation, and conicts. The second ins-

titution is a Comité de Agua (Water Commi-

ttee). This organisation is specically orien-

ted to cope with the lack of potable water in

the zone. Put it another way, the existence

of this institution is directly associated with

the absence of the State and private com-

panies in potable distribution. In words of

a leader of the Water Committee, ‘I believe

that people’s necessities are what forced us

to create an organisation to nd solutions to

these problems’ (A. López, personal com-

munication, February 20, 2017). Nowadays,

Villa Chaquimayu’s Water Committee uses a

communal water well to provide potable wa-

ter to 140 households. The residents of the

neighbourhood require a membership in or-

der to become members of the Water Com-

mittee. The price of this membership is rou-

ghly 1000 dollars (this is approximately the

equivalent to the costs people paid to build a

water well in the zone).

2. A State-System marked by illegality

A key element to understanding the policies

the State applies in Villa Chaquimayu is the

fact that the neighbourhood is considered as

an ‘illegal settlement’ (asentamiento ilegal).

This section explains the meaning of ‘ille-

gality’ in the Bolivian context and analyses

how illegality inuences the policies imple-

mented by the State in Villa Chaquimayu in

order to characterize the State-system.

In Bolivia, illegal settlements are neighbour-

hoods in which people do not have legal

‘property rights’ (derecho propietario) over

their houses or land. In Cochabamba, seve-

ral illegal neighbourhoods have been crea-

ted throughout the city because many people

-mainly loteadores (land trafckers)- have

been illegally occupying and selling was-

ted and unused land to satisfy the increasing

housing demands of poor people.

The main reason why some neighbourhoods

do not have ‘property rights’, therefore, is

because of the high levels of informality that

characterise Cochabamba’s urban expan-

sion. In the case of Villa Chaquimayu, this

neighbourhood used to be an agrarian zone.

Nevertheless, a process of urbanization star-

ted in this zone when loteadores began to sell

land and houses to internal migrants. Most

people in Villa Chaquimayu have made im-

portant economic investments to buy their

houses, consequently, the label of ‘illegali-

ty’ associated with the neighbourhood is not

well received among most residents of the

neighbourhood. In words of a water commi-

ttee leader:

When they [the government] tell

us that we are illegals, it looks

like if we would have done some-

thing extremely bad. For them, it

is like if we have built our hou-

ses in a random place, overwhel-

ming everything on our way. That

is not what happened here, we are

not illegals (M. Pérez, personal

communication, March 23, 2017).

At rst, the existence of illegal settlements

goes against the law and the interest of the

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State (Walnycki 2015:15). Therefore, the

lack of property rights implies that people

in Villa Chaquimayu must deal with long

bureaucratic processes and with a lack of

funding and support from the State. In this

context, dealing with State institutions is

usually a frustrating task for neighbourhood

leaders. Mr. Estevez -a former communal

leader- illustrated this point in the following

anecdote:

What they [government ofcials]

always tell us when we have a

claim is: ‘property rights’. That is

the big excuse they always have,

to say that we are illegal settle-

ments […]. A few years ago, we

planned to build a coliseo [a sports

centre]. I had that idea because we

don’t have that type of spaces for

recreation in the neighbourhood.

I talked with several people in the

government. They told me that we

needed to have property rights and,

that as soon as when we get pro-

perty rights they would help us.

It’s frustrating because meanwhi-

le we are in the long process to

try to get our property rights, they

will forget all the promises they

made (J. Estevez, personal com-

munication, February 13, 2007).

During 2017, the community leaders of Villa

Chaquimayu have been working for obtai-

ning property rights and, thus, legalise the

neighbourhood. This, however, has not been

an easy or straightforward process. Indeed,

community leaders have faced several bu-

reaucratic obstacles. For instance, in early

2017, the legalisation process of the neigh-

bourhood was in a standby phase for several

weeks, because the ofcial responsible for

the process decided to take a long and uns-

cheduled period of vacation.

We are doing the paperwork nee-

ded to obtain our property rights.

The worst thing about that, is

that the architect who is in char-

ge […] decided to take vacations,

and he didn’t inform that to us.

All the plans we have are stuck

[…]. The only thing we can do is

wait until he comes back. There

you can have an idea of how our

politics work (M. Pérez, personal

communication, March 23,2017).

The neighbourhood’s illegal status currently

does not cause major problems to the local

Water Committee. Indeed, despite the fact

that this neighbourhood is considered as an

illegal settlement, its Water Committee has

been regularised and operates legally since

2010. In other words, people in Villa Cha-

quimayu do not have property rights, but

they can legally organise a Water Committee

to get access to potable water.

3. Potable water, informality and the State

In Villa Chaquimayu, the State has never di-

rectly taken the responsibility for providing

potable water to its citizens. Indeed, Semapa

(Cochabamba’s public water utility) does not

operate in this neighbourhood. Nevertheless,

the State has indirectly facilitated the work

of Villa Chaquimayu’s Water Committee

through two different mechanisms. First, the

State recognises the Water Committee as a

‘legal institution’, which facilitates the par-

ticipation of this institution in bureaucratic

processes. Second, the State has indirectly

supported some of the committee’s projects

for providing potable water to the zone. For

instance, during the 1990s, the Bolivian

government, through the Environment Mi-

nistry (Ministerio de Ambiente), provided

alimentation to the inhabitants of Villa Cha-

quimayu who worked as volunteers for buil-

ding water-access infrastructure. In words

of Mr. López, who worked as a volunteer in

this project:

In 1992, people organised a commu-

nal work for getting access to water

from a nearby creek. This project, I

believe, was done with the collabo-

ration of Environment [Ministry].

They collaborated just with the ali-

mentation. People who worked as

volunteers received alimentation.

They worked every week with the

food they received as collabora-

tion, but they never received any

money (A. López, personal com-

munication, February 20, 2017).

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This approach -in which the State allows

informal institutions to ourish in order to

ll the absence of formal basic services- has

been denominated as ‘calculated informali-

ty’ (Walnycki 2015:9). The Bolivian Cons-

titution has ofcialised Water Committees’

calculated informality, as it determinates

that the State can rely on communal institu-

tions, such as Water Committees, to provide

potable water to its citizens. In Villa Chaqui-

mayu, the calculated informality created by

the State has serious inconveniences.

First, Villa Chaquimayu’s Water Committee

does not have the technical and nancial ca-

pacities to sufce the demands of the popu-

lation in terms of quality and quantity of wa-

ter. The absence of the State in potable water

distribution, therefore, has negative conse-

quences for people’s living conditions (Ledo

2013:5). Second, the fares people pay for

Water Committee’s services are higher than

the fares charged by Cochabamba’s public

water utility in wealthier neighbourhoods.

Subsequently, the model in which commu-

nal institutions replace public utilities aggra-

vates the inequalities and the spatial segre-

gation existent within the city, as people in

the poorer neighbourhoods pay more for wa-

ter than people in the wealthier zones. Third,

Villa Chaquimayu’s Water Committee does

not provide potable water to the whole nei-

ghbourhood.

Actually, most people in Villa Chaquima-

yu still relies on aguateros (informal water

trucks) to get access to water. The services

aguateros provide are more expensive and

have less quality in comparison the Water

Committee or Semapa’s services. The Sta-

te’s policies in Villa Chaquimayu complete-

ly neglect to people who do not participate in

the Water Committee.

Overall, the model in which the State trans-

fers its responsibility into self-funded water

committees has direct consequences over

people’s living conditions, and deepen the

differences existent between people who

live in the wealthier and in the marginalised

areas of the city. One of the possible ma-

cro-level solutions the State has for impro-

ving the access to water of people living in

the marginalised areas of Cochabamba is the

‘Misicuni project’. Misicuni is a dam orien-

ted to provide potable water to Cochabamba

by diverting water from a nearby river.

The Misicuni project started in 1987 and

was inaugurated in 2017 (the project presen-

ted serious technical failures just a few days

after being inaugurated). Considering that in

Villa Chaquimayu, the neighbourhood’s sys-

tem of pipes is not connected to Cochabam-

ba’s main water network, the Misicuni dam

cannot provide water to the neighbourhood

yet. In any case, the Misicuni project could

rapidly change the dynamics and the way in

which people get access to water in this nei-

ghbourhood.

The next section analyses the narratives the

majority of my informants have about what is

the State (i.e. their State-idea). For analytical

purposes, these narratives have been classi-

ed in three clusters: First, narratives about

the absence of the State. Second, narratives

about the role of the State in Cochabamba’s

spatial segregation. Third, narratives about

the differences between the State and com-

munal institutions.

4. Narratives about the State: the absence

of the State

The direct absence of the State in basic ser-

vices provision inuences the way people

in Villa Chaquimayu understand what is the

State. Many people in this neighbourhood

are aware that access to basic services is

their constitutional right, and that the State

is primarily responsible for providing people

with access to these services. Nonetheless,

for them, the ‘real’ State is not an institu-

tion oriented to protect people’s rights. On

the contrary, people associate the State with

negative connotations like extensive bureau-

cracy, corruption or the pursuit of personal

interests. The following quotes illustrate this

point:

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We know that the Constitution says

that the State has the obligation of

promoting policies oriented to pro-

vide people with health, education

and basic services, but here we don’t

have any of that […] The constitu-

tion says, everybody has the right

of having a place to live. But the

authorities, they simply don’t un-

derstand that. Imagine this: I have

lived here since 1991. I have been

living in this house for 26 years.

In all these 26 years, we haven’t

been able to legalize the neighbour-

hood […] It’s too much time. Too

much time without basic services

[…] The constitution says, ‘we all

have equal rights’, but in reality,

not everybody has access to health

or education (M. Pérez, personal

communication, March 23, 2017).

[In the State] everything is based on

personal calculations and corrup-

tion. Let’s say, for instance, that the

municipality has a project. Then, the

municipality asks the government

for support, but, the government

then says that they haven’t received

any project, so they will blame the

municipality for their lack of ini-

tiatives. We don’t know to whom

we should trust. These things ha-

ppened, and the only ones who are

affected are the inhabitants of the

zone (R. Aguirre, personal com-

munication, February 22, 2017).

As these quotes illustrate, people in Vi-

lla Chaquimayu often understand what the

State is in pragmatic terms. In other words,

for these people, the State is not necessari-

ly what the constitution or the textbooks say

it is. On the contrary, the State is reected

in the palpable actions it takes in the neigh-

bourhood. Take for example this quote:

Here the State has the obligation

to provide water, but look how it

works... Perhaps the government

does not have the information; per-

haps they do not know that we do

not have [water]. There is too much

bureaucracy, too much paperwork.

We rather organise that by oursel-

ves, if we don’t we waste years.

If we wait for the government to

drill a well it might take more than

two years. In addition, I do not

even have expectations about the

municipality (A. López, personal

communication, March 12, 2017).

On the other hand, Villa Chaquimayu’s Wa-

ter Committee is seen as a more pragmatic

institution in comparison to the State, as the

Water Committee has the sole purpose of

providing people with access to one of the

resources that the State does not provide. In

other words, Water Committees ll the gaps

left by the State. Take for example these

quotes taken from an interview with one of

the Water Committee’s leaders:

We are not the only ones with a wa-

ter well. Everybody in this zone has

wells. If you go to other places, peo-

ple will tell you exactly the same:

they do it with their own resources.

That is the only way. Neither the

municipality nor the governorate do

anything (A. López, personal com-

munication, February 20, 2017).

5. Narratives about the State: Cochabam-

ba’s spatial segregation

The unequal infrastructure and funding exis-

tent between the different zones of Cocha-

bamba also plays an important role in the na-

rratives people build about what the State is.

Indeed, many people consider that the State

intentionally neglects the (poor) southern

zone of the city and privileges the (weal-

thier) northern zone. The following quote

illustrates this perspective:

What really pisses me off is that

thirty years ago, the streets in the

north were just like the streets

are here. But now they have

everything, all the basic services.

They live in good conditions. Whe-

reas, here, we do not have anything.

It seems to me that there is a huge

discrimination. It is like people

living in the southern zone were

inferiors. In the south, everything

works slowly, but on the other

side [the north] they accelerate

everything [...] (M. Pérez, personal

communication, March 23, 2017).

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As it can be seen, for Mr. Pérez the State ac-

complishes an efcient work in the northern

zone, but this is not the case in the southern

zone. In other words, for him, the State is

not a pro-poor institution. Indeed, Mr. Pé-

rez, and several other informants, associated

the State with ideas of discrimination; this is

to say that for them, the State is an institu-

tion that discriminates poor people. Take for

example this quote taken from an interview

with Doña G. Morales:

Basically, the southern zone has

always been neglected, it has been

discriminated. As people say, peo-

ple in the south must stand by

themselves [como quien dice, la

gente del sud que se la aguan-

te]. But, I can see that this is not

always the case in the north, it’s

different (G. Morales, personal

communication, February 2, 2017).

All in all, people often attribute the spatial

segregation existent in Cochabamba, to the

actions and practices the State implements.

6. Narratives about the State: the contrast be-

tween the State and communal institutions

For the residents of this neighbourhood,

politics usually have two different conno-

tations: one associated with the work of the

State and the other associated with the work

of communal institutions (e.g. Water Com-

mittee). The following quotes - collected

in a series of interviews with inhabitants of

Villa Chaquimayu and leaders of the Water

Committee- illustrate the views people have

about the practices of communal and State

institutions:

We [the water committee] work

with our own effort. We work as

volunteers; we buy the infrastruc-

ture and materials with our own

money. If we go to the authorities

-to the governorate or the munici-

pality- we do not get anything, I

do not know why, but they do not

help us (A. López, personal com-

munication, February 20, 2017).

This is how politics work; Bolivian

politics are not efcient. Every-

body does what they want, and

everything is a mess. People are

waiting to solve the necessities,

whilst, others -the politicians- don’t

care. We are used to it, at least in

this zone (M. Pérez, personal com-

munication, March 23, 2017).

Here, we [the people of Villa Cha-

quimayu] had to drill a well by our-

selves, with our own money, with

our own sacrice. No institution

helped us. We did it with our own

sacrice. It cost us almost 60,000

dollars, and no one was here to

help us (J. Estevez, personal com-

munication, February 13, 2017).

As it can be seen, the work of the Water

Committee is usually associated with no-

tions such as self-sacrice or communal

work, whereas the practices of the State are

associated with notions such as corruption,

ineffectiveness or chaos. In other words, the-

re is a dichotomy by which the work of the

State has negative connotations, whereas the

work of the Water Committee is associated

with more positive ideas.

It is also interesting to note that, for people in

Villa Chaquimayu, the eld of action of the

Water Committee is discursively associated

to the everyday necessities people have. In

other words, the actions taken by the water

committee have a palpable outcome inside

the neighbourhood, whereas the State’s po-

licies have been less tangible. In this sense,

communal institutions are usually perceived

to be closer to the people than macro-level

politics. Mr. Luna, another communal leader

in Villa Chaquimayu, exemplied this point

in the following way:

There is too much discrimination

from the government. I ask my-

self: many people live in this zone

and yet we do not have recreatio-

nal spaces, a hospital, or a good

school [...] They don’t give re-

sources to people who must need

it. Inside the neighbourhood, we

have to think by ourselves how we

can progress, we must take actions

and decisions by ourselves, and

we cannot wait (M. Luna, personal

communication, February 6, 2017).

REVISTA CHAKIÑAN, 2018, Nº.4, ABRIL, (43-52)

ISSN 2550-6722

In this context, people in Villa Chaquimayu

feel more connected with neighbourhood

institutions such as the Water Committee

than with the State or macro-level politics.

CONCLUSION

Following Abrams (1998), this paper analy-

sed the relation between the State’s policies

and practices (State-system), and the narrati-

ves people build about what is the State (Sta-

te-idea). The analysis of the public manage-

ment of potable water distribution in Villa

Chaquimayu shows that negligent public

policies have a negative impact on people’s

imaginaries and understandings of what

is the State. In other words, people’s ideas

about the State are not only based on the

concepts transmitted by schools and media,

but also on people’ everyday experiences.

First, in Villa Chaquimayu the practices and

policies implemented by the State (i.e. the

State-system (Abrams 1988)) are highly

inuenced by a series of bureaucratic obs-

tacles created by the ‘illegal’ status of the

neighbourhood. In other words, against the

backdrop of illegality, the State does not ad-

dress many of the neighbourhood’s needs.

Nevertheless, the State’s policies in relation

to potable water distribution are based on a

‘calculated informality’ (Walnycki 2015:9)

in which the State intentionally transfers to

local institutions its responsibility of provi-

ding people with access to potable water.

In other words, the State does not directly

provide people with access to water, but it

allows informal and communal institutions

to ourish in order to ll the absence of basic

services. Indeed, in Villa Chaquimayu, the

State has legalised and indirectly supported

the actions of the local Water Committee. For

instance, throughout its history, the Water

Committee has built infrastructure projects

based on people’s voluntary work. The State

has not directly funded these projects, but it

has provided food to volunteers during their

working days. In this regard, Davis (1999)

has noted that some groups of citizens are

more distanced from the state than others,

and it is the extent of citizens’ distance from

the State that explains their likelihood of

joining social movements and the strategies

they are likely to pursue (Davis 1999:601).

Indeed, in Villa Chaquimayu, the systematic

practices of exclusion implemented by the

State are closely related with the everyday

political practices people in Villa Chaquima-

yu use to get access to potable water.

Second, the policies implemented by the

State in Villa Chaquimayu have a direct

inuence on people’s ideas and narratives

about what is the State i.e. their State-idea

(Abrams 1988:58). Simply put, people’s no-

tions about the State usually match with the

palpable actions the State implements in the

neighbourhood. In general terms, most of

my informants consider that in illegal nei-

ghbourhoods such as Villa Chaquimayu, the

State is an ineffective and unfair institution,

as people associate the State with ideas such

as abandonment and spatial segregation. In

contrast, the neighbourhood’s Water Com-

mittee is best regarded among the inhabitants

of the zone, as this institution directly deals

with the problems caused by the State’s ab-

sence. To sum up, the neighbourhood’s ille-

gality and the calculated informality imple-

mented by the State are directly associated

with a series of negative imaginaries about

what is the State. The State cannot be a fu-

lly-legitimised institution in neighbourhoods

such as Villa Chaquimayu, as long as it does

no address peoples’ basic needs, such as the

access to potable water.

REVISTA CHAKIÑAN, 2018, Nº.4, ABRIL, (43-52)

ISSN 2550-6722

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INTERVIEWS

Aguirre, R. Interview with the author, February 22,2017.

Estevez, J. Interview with the author, February 13, 2007.

López, A. Interview with the author, February 20, 2017.

López, A. Interview with the author, March 12, 2017.

Luna, M. Interview with the author, February 6, 2017.

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Pérez, M. Interview with the author, March 23, 2017.