I found Dr. Bjork-James focus on the common spaces and practices created through social movements interesting. Focusing on common spaces enables him to see how race and class affect social movement mobilization and decision making. He explores questions such as the extent to which these common spaces facilitate collective decision making. He also discusses how Bolivia’s social movements have high participation compared to other countries. I am curious as to why Bolivia’s social movements elicit such a strong public reaction in comparison to political unrest in other countries.
One thing I found interesting is Dr. Bjork-James’ discussion of his positionality as an ethnographer conducting this research in Bolivia in the introduction. He writes, “I became aware of the relevance of my Blackness to my ethnographic work. I could not fail to see the parallels between the backlash against Bolivia’s indigenous-led political movements and the repeated attempts to violently silence African Americans in moments of struggle” (18). His identity and lived experiences allows him to observe and analyze racial dimension of the political unrest in Bolivia in a deeper way. I think his discussion of positionality connects to research ethics. He discloses his relationship to his research topic and explains how his racial identity and lived experiences affect and strengthen his research. Readers should interpret ethnographic findings while taking into account the researcher’s positionality.