A study on the transformation of socio-economic space and community in rural Mexico under the NAFTA regime

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A growing awareness for (re) localization of production and governance systems as a communal response to economic globalization among scholars and practitioners in regional development has been visible world-wide. More specifically, based on implications from the 1990s' NGOs studies, an empirical analysis of roles of and inter-relations among various organizational actors participating in local development such as local NGOs and international/domestic donors that provide NGOs with direct/indirect assistance is needed, from which we could find some aspects of reality of Sourthen civil society. Mexico is an ideal example for this analysis, since the country has experienced a drastic neoliberalistic transformation in its rural and agricultural sectors with a full membership of NAFTA for seven years. While globalization with a neoliberalistic policy orientation transforms Mexico's macro economic and social environment rapidly, the study identifies the emergence of a place-based alternative dynamics for restructuring local socio-economic space with civil society's initiatives. Also, the study identifies a discourse nourished through the experiences of alternative development at a grassroots level, and actual practices in that context by local NGOs. As a result, I have reached a hypothetical premise of a possible role of Southern civil society for endogenous local development with supports from global civic networks. A critical examination of this hypothesis is needed.