The Depoliticized Making of Social Elites

By combining the perspective of a critical sociology and an anthropology of development, this article analyzes participatory development projects for indigenous peoples in Chiapas. In a context where the specificity of the indigenous issue refers to a conflict between the Mexican State and the indigenous peoples, “capacity building” projects are implemented. First, I focus on the use of participation as a means to strengthen the legitimacy of a highly contested Mexican State in this federated State. Then, the article highlights the processes by which these participatory mechanisms feed a selection and building process of a local elite, thus prompted to become State’s interlocutors and eventually institutional activists. In closing, I explore participation supervision as a means to control and avoid the contestatory register of politics.