Community-based organization and participatory planning in south-east Mexico City

Abstract

This paper describes the experiences of community-based organizations in settlements and municipalities in south-east Mexico City in participatory planning and in the development of local projects and new employment opportunities. In order to do so, popular groups joined forces with students and professionals. They sought to demonstrate new models of urban and peri-urban development that met their inhabitants’ needs while avoiding the chaotic informal processes by which most low-income settlements develop. They also sought to ensure good natural resource management and the protection of their rich and diverse cultural heritage. Last but not least, they searched for new approaches to community-based organizational replication in harmony with the environment. This paper describes the many projects implemented in San Miguel Teotongo, Cananea and Sierra Nevada which included new schools, health centres and community museums, settlement lay-outs with planned and installed infrastructure, markets, the protection of green areas and historic sites and the development of new agricultural products and eco-tourism. It also included community-based mapping of municipalities to allow better management of natural resources. The paper also describes how these initiatives have developed over the last 20 years and their role within Mexico’s complex political changes, including their relations with different political parties.

Land conflict in peri-urban areas: Exploring the effects of land reform on informal settlement in Mexico

“…Although social movements remained prominent in Mexico City in the 1980s, the 1990s saw social movements shift away from political initiatives towards projects of self-reliance and participatory planning (Moctezuma, 2001). The case of Tierra y Libertad demonstrates the corporatist regime's capacity to manage dissent and conflict through repression and co-optation, particularly in the context of precariety (Vellinga, 1989).…”

“…Social movements such as the Movimiento Urbano Popular (Mexico City) and Tierra y Libertad (Monterrey) encouraged residents to demand housing, land and services through invasions and community self-organisation (Moctezuma, 2001). Tierra y Libertad represented a high point of settlement-based collective organisation.…”

Use and Consequences of Participatory Gis in a Mexican Municipality: Applying a Multilevel Framework

“…The sense of localness was also disrupted as uncontrolled sprawl from the metropolis threatens to transform Tlalmanalco from a predominantly rural area into a bedroom community (Moctezuma, 2001). …”

“…In that region, for the past 30 years, a series of environmental threats, combined with unequal economic development, have been undermining the connection between the local population and their land. In 1997, after a metropolitan planning authority predicted an ecological crisis for the next decade, a university/community initiative called Proyecto Sierra Nevada was established to contain urban sprawl and ecological dangers through local and sustainable development projects (Moctezuma, 2001). One of the challenges found was the need for re-appropriation of the territory by the community, which was addressed with the help of an innovative implementation of PGIS.…”

Dialectic Approaches and Public Policy Interactions for Social, Environmental and Health Problems: Challenges for Health Promotion across Territorial Scales

“…In this sense Van Den Hove (2007) [32] describes a dialect of a worldwide prerogative of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the respective developments of the overall European science-policy interface. Moctezuma (2001) [33] describes how community-based mapping allowed better management of natural resources in municipalities in Mexico, and so representing an important role within national political changes. The above cited papers of Getzner (2008) [23] and Leventon & Antypas (2012) [25] are also examples of multilevel approaches, since both engage through an approach from the context of the European Union to a country.…”