Abstract

The purpose of this article is to introduce the work and life of the Bolivian writer René Zavaleta Mercado, whose essay Forma clase y forma multitud en el proletariado minero en Bolivia (1982) is translated by the author in this section. In particular, the introduction will first highlight elements of Bolivian history that help to understand the way in which René Zavaleta Mercado conceptualises the processes of politicisation of miners and indigenous peoples in twentieth-century Bolivia. Secondly, it will also show how Zavaleta’s texts and concepts are currently used in Latin American sociology and anthropology, and it will shed light on some of the categories coined by Zavaleta that are still used today to analyse forms of political participation and emancipation in post-colonial states.