No description available.

After the Great Depression of 1929--1933, the relative isolation of Mexico's economy led to the adoption of Import Substitution Industrialization. The use of this model as a development strategy meant specializing in manufactured goods under a regime of state interventionism and a closed economy. However, after many years of inward-looking policies, ISI collapsed. Moreover, with excessive public expenditures and fiscal mismanagements, Mexico's economic stability started to erode. The result was Mexico's first economic crisis, the effects of which could only be alleviated through loans from International Financial Institutions that were contingent on the implementation of defined policies. Thus, Mexico adopted the neoliberal development model as its strategy for economic growth and recovery. Under this model, trade liberalization, outward-looking policies, and state non-interventionism promised economic growth as a necessary precondition for social justice and development. Mexico's implementation of neoliberal policies, on one hand, has aided its integration into a market-oriented economy in which competitiveness, foreign investment, and technology transfers are considered as paths to economic growth and, on the other hand, has widened the gap between the rich and the poor, and has impeded sustainable development.

This study provides an overview of vacancy and blight within communities across the United States and the significance that these factors play in the overall health and prosperity of the neighborhoods and cities in which they exist. The recent housing boom and eventual bust destabilized neighborhoods and led the federal government to provide funds for communities to combat vacancy and blight through the American Recovery Act and the Dodd Frank Act. The City of Muncie utilized these funds to demolish vacant, blighted properties and to aid developers in the rehabilitation of several historic properties for rental and sale to low-income residents. Although these efforts are an excellent starting point for redevelopment of Muncie’s neighborhoods, there is room for improvement in utilizing private-public relationships and funding sources to amplify current successes. / Department of Urban Planning

In the valley of Tehuacán Mexico, the Calipam sugar central is bringing about the socio-economic development of small, individually unviable properties within its tributary area. The economic dominance by the sugar central of its tributary area results in its ability to control and direct changes in the economy of that area. The valley of Tehuacán is a dry, densely populated area, with a great number of very small agricultural land holdings. One major problem of the area is that individually these properties are too small to achieve an economy of scale of production. Within the tributary area of the Calipam sugar central, however, it appears that a large number of small sugar cane producing farms are undergoing socio-economic development. It is then important to examine why this is taking place, and what is the part of the sugar central in this socio-economic development. The topic for this study first came to the attention of this writer during a research season in Mexico in 1967. During summer of 1968 this writer spent a research period in the valley of Tehuacán. At that time, through access to the records of the Calipam central, and through individual investigation of the cane system of the valley, including a sample of some ten percent of the peasant farmers of the cane area of the valley, a considerable amount of verbal evidence and documentary material was obtained. Furthermore, through research into statistical sources and records in numerous government ministries in Mexico City, Oaxaca, Puebla, and Tehuacán, it has been possible to obtain a reasonable picture of the role of the sugar central in the valley of Tehuacán. From the data collected, it has become possible to assess in some detail the abilities and opportunities for the central to act as an agency for the socio-economic betterment of its tributary area. Moreover it has become possible to show some of the environmental, economic and institutional constraints which cause the central to act in a manner which benefits not only the central itself, but also the small farmers of its tributary area. It was found that, in the case of the Calipam central, although the principal motivation for the actions of the central were those of economic self-interest, the central acted as an economic stimulus for the small farms which were associated with its cane sugar production system. As well, largely due to the legal contracts and constraints upon the actions of the central, credit programmes and social programmes were provided for the small farmers of the cane system. These programmes acted both as incentives to produce cane for the central, and as programmes of benefit to the well-being of the small farmer. Although the nature of controls, and the exercise of power by the central are closely parallel to the traditional hacienda system or the classic plantation type, the most important difference is that the small producer receives direct benefit from the system. The central, properly controlled, can then be seen as a developmental, rather than an exploitive system. The success of the Calipam central in the valley of Tehuacán suggests that the central system may be useful as an agency for socio-economic development of other regions where realities of population pressures or tenure laws prevent the achievement of economies of scale on the present small agricultural units. The success of the central system is to a large extent predicated on a mutually beneficial relationship between the peasant and the central, as part of a cash crop production system. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

The Mountain Pima of the Sierra Madre Occidental of Chihuahua, Mexico, utilize a variety of domesticated and nondomesticated resources. Part of their agricultural system consists of shifting, or swidden, cultivation on steep hillsides. Wild edible plants contribute significant amounts of vitamins and minerals to the diet on a seasonal basis. The drought of 1988 caused a decrease in the availability of many resources, but an increase in availability of roots of saraviqui (Prionosciadium townsendii). A dynamic, nonlinear optimization study of Mountain Pima diet included requirements for adequate amounts of energy, protein, calcium, and vitamins A and C. Oxalate content of several plant foods and seasonal variation in resource availability were incorporated into the study. Two methods were compared: time minimization and a nutrient indexing method minimizing the product of the absolute value of the natural logarithm of the ratio of recommended intake to actual intake rates. This method allowed simultaneous optimization of several different parameters. The nutrient indexing model matched the actual diet of the Mountain Pima somewhat better than the traditional energy minimization model. It predicted higher use of noncultivated plant species and of animal resources than the time minimization model. Analyses were conducted for years of adequate rainfall and for the drought year. A list of 612 plant species collected in the community of Nabogame is also included.

No description available.

The study is a comparative analysis of the development of two networks of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Jalisco and their contribution to the strengthening of the political capacities of NGOs. A new view of civil society is introduced that emphasizes its multiple functions and forms the basis for disaggregating capacity into three dimensions: defensive, propositional and infrastructural. A political process approach draws from social movement theory for understanding the emergence and activities of NGO networks. / The development of NGOs in Mexico from the 1960s through the 1990s is analyzed as the result of mobilization in response to political opportunities arising from transformations to the political and social policy regimes of the Mexican state. The study compares the national pattern with the experience of two regional NGO networks: Foro de Organismos Civiles de Oaxaca (FOCO) and Foro de Organismos Civiles de Jalisco (FOCIV). Each network emerged in response to state-level defensive and propositional opportunities. / Comparative historical case studies and a latitudinal analysis of linkage development reveal the contribution of these two networks to capacity-building. Increased communication between member organizations was an positive result of the network activities. However, neither network strengthened linkages of NGOs with popular movements, political parties, or the state. The study confirms earlier research findings that these types of networks contribute to the development of pluralism in civil society, but reveals the defence of NGO autonomy to be a barrier to greater linkage development. / The focus on autonomy can distance NGOs from other important political actors and their struggles, hinder coordination with other actors, and thus reduce the political effectiveness of the networks. The two cases also illustrate the important role of third-order NGOs to the development of the sector as a whole, and suggest that linkages tend to be stronger in networks where third-order NGOs promote network development.

Doctorat en sciences sociales, politiques et économiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

A brief glimpse into the diplomatic correspondence to preponderance of intercourse due to the economic development of Mexico and the United States. It was at first hoped that the scope of this thesis could cover the definite effect of the economic development upon the diplomatic relations. Unfortunately that task would cover such a wide field as to admit of no intensive study of any particular phase. The diplomatic correspondence of the last twenty years covers an enormous field, due largely to the unsettled conditions existing in Mexico subsequent to the fall of Porfirio Diaz