- Willem Assies died in 2010 at the age of 55. The various stages of his career as a political anthropologist of Latin American illustrate how astute a researcher he was. He had a keen eye for the contradictions he observed during his fieldwork but also enjoyed theoretical debate. A distrust of power led him not only to attempt to understand people without voice but to work alongside them so they could discover and find their own voice. Willem Assies explored the messy, often untidy daily lives of people, with their inconsistencies, irrationalities, and passions, but also with their hopes, sense of beauty, solidarity, and quest for dignity. This collection brings together some of Willem Assies's best, most fascinating, and still highly relevant writings. Contents : Introduction / Gemma van der Haar, Salvador Marti Puig, and Ton Salman -- Of structured moves and moving structures : an overview of theoretical perspectives on social movements -- Urban social movements, democratization, and democracy in Brazil -- The agrarian question in Peru : some observations on the roads of capital -- From rubber estate to simple commodity production : agrarian struggles in the northern Bolivian Amazon -- Self-determination and the "new partnership" : the politics of indigenous peoples and states -- Indian justice in the Andes : re-rooting or re-routing? -- The limits of state reform and multiculturalism in Latin America : contemporary illustrations -- Steps forward, one step back : indigenous peoples and autonomies in Latin America -- David versus Goliath in Cochabamba : water rights, neoliberalism, and the revival of social protest in Bolivia -- Neoliberalism and the re-emergence of ethnopolitics in Bolivia.