effort? What are the challenges regarding participation and management in the
creation of a new means for the construction of local progress and development?
The objective of this Chapter is to provide some possible reflections on the
construction of an alternative means of local development, which we call the Via
UAQ using as a starting point, the various experiences that have been implemented
in recent decades in Mexico as well as the numerous strategies that are currently
being realized in the country and in other parts of the world. We know that in the
lessons learned there is a set of knowledge that is relevant due to its innovation and
strategy, from which we can make our hypotheses and propose a model that goes
beyond social and technological organization, and overrides the dichotomies
between the local and the global, and the traditional and the modern. We believe
that the joining of the global and the local—glocality—for rural change, at its
different levels, is a possible utopia capable of combining local practices and
knowledge with innovations from other traditions of thought such as the scientific
tradition, based on a ‘‘dialog of knowledges’’ that would allow for integration and
synergy while also functioning as a strategy for the implementation of differential
scenarios of development and well-being in the short, medium, and long term.
This article analyzes various stages of the rural world in Mexico, in order to
present the important global changes in agriculture and their impacts at the local
level in the country, from the beginning of the twentieth century until the agricultural crisis in Mexico in the mid-1990s. The purpose of all this is to contextualize
an intervention strategy for the construction of an agri-food production model that
meets the demands of the market and is within the capacity of the production sites.
16.2 (R)Evolutions in the Countryside
At a pace set by a people with a declared passion for speed appeared the excessive
growth of their social and cultural domains, in which cement increasingly drowns
the land, and where sustainable food, water, and energy are no longer possible in
many parts of the world. The scientific, political, economic, and symbolic changes
of the past 50 years in the history of mankind have generated an endless number of
modifications among the systems of coexistence of the species that inhabit planet
Earth. Economistic order, progress, and unilinear development have progressively
taken a heavy toll on both biological and cultural diversity. However, along with
an excessive abuse of natural resources, which are essential to the reproduction of
the human species, arose concern from the various disciplines of scientific
knowledge about how to find ways to stop and reverse those processes which are
so destructive to nature.
Thus, understanding the society in which we live allows us to understand the
appearance of a social, environmental, and institutional situation in our country.
For this reason, it is extremely important to reflect upon development policies,
mainly those intended for rural areas, and upon their social implications and
environmental consequences.
16 When Modernity is Not Enough
457
creation of a new means for the construction of local progress and development?
The objective of this Chapter is to provide some possible reflections on the
construction of an alternative means of local development, which we call the Via
UAQ using as a starting point, the various experiences that have been implemented
in recent decades in Mexico as well as the numerous strategies that are currently
being realized in the country and in other parts of the world. We know that in the
lessons learned there is a set of knowledge that is relevant due to its innovation and
strategy, from which we can make our hypotheses and propose a model that goes
beyond social and technological organization, and overrides the dichotomies
between the local and the global, and the traditional and the modern. We believe
that the joining of the global and the local—glocality—for rural change, at its
different levels, is a possible utopia capable of combining local practices and
knowledge with innovations from other traditions of thought such as the scientific
tradition, based on a ‘‘dialog of knowledges’’ that would allow for integration and
synergy while also functioning as a strategy for the implementation of differential
scenarios of development and well-being in the short, medium, and long term.
This article analyzes various stages of the rural world in Mexico, in order to
present the important global changes in agriculture and their impacts at the local
level in the country, from the beginning of the twentieth century until the agricultural crisis in Mexico in the mid-1990s. The purpose of all this is to contextualize
an intervention strategy for the construction of an agri-food production model that
meets the demands of the market and is within the capacity of the production sites.
16.2 (R)Evolutions in the Countryside
At a pace set by a people with a declared passion for speed appeared the excessive
growth of their social and cultural domains, in which cement increasingly drowns
the land, and where sustainable food, water, and energy are no longer possible in
many parts of the world. The scientific, political, economic, and symbolic changes
of the past 50 years in the history of mankind have generated an endless number of
modifications among the systems of coexistence of the species that inhabit planet
Earth. Economistic order, progress, and unilinear development have progressively
taken a heavy toll on both biological and cultural diversity. However, along with
an excessive abuse of natural resources, which are essential to the reproduction of
the human species, arose concern from the various disciplines of scientific
knowledge about how to find ways to stop and reverse those processes which are
so destructive to nature.
Thus, understanding the society in which we live allows us to understand the
appearance of a social, environmental, and institutional situation in our country.
For this reason, it is extremely important to reflect upon development policies,
mainly those intended for rural areas, and upon their social implications and
environmental consequences.
16 When Modernity is Not Enough
457