Competition and Cooperation Among Working Women in the Context of Structural Adjustment: The Case of Street Vendors in la Paz-El Alto, Bolivia

Abstract

This case study of women street vendors in La Paz-El Alto, Bolivia, examines the dynamics of competition and cooperation among this group of poor working women in the context of economic structural adjustment and political pluralization. It is argued that the economic and political reforms not only increase street vendors’insecurities, but may also undermine the potential for their broad-based solidarity and collective actions. Extreme competition in the overcrowded street commerce, diminishing returns, and disillusionment with traditional forms of workers’ organization hinder cooperation among street vendors and fragment the social body of the street marketplace, often by further reinforcing its gender, class, ethnoracial, and religious fault lines.