Empowerment through participatory processes: neighbourhood assemblies in el al to- Bolivia

Participation and empowerment are two concepts embedded in the current development discourse but with different meanings in the reality depending on the context applied. The understanding of participation and the underlying processes of empowerment requires a critical analysis of the spaces within which they take place. In this sense, the main aim of this research is to provide an alternative analytical framework of participation and empowerment within the dimensions of invited and created spaces for civil society organizations. The paper argues that participation per-se is not enough to . empower civil society organizations. Since within participatory processes there are political spaces in which different stakeholders interact and confront according to different degreesof power. Moreover, political spaces imply struggles for enhancing, modifying andlor creating spaces for having a voice in excluded people. The empirical case of FEJUVE EI Alto and its participation in invited spaces (the National Dialogues which were part of the Poverty Reduction Strategy process) and created spaces (the urban social uprising of the Gas War in October 2003) illustrates the different typologies of participation and empowerment in these spaces. In addition, the bipolar nature of FEJUVE EI Alto as a civil society organization within the decentralized structure of the State and as an important actor in contemporary social movements, shows how power relations transcend and interact between invited and created spaces. Finally, the concept of empowerment as a means and as an end, makes a difference in participatory processes depending on the goals and outcomes of them.