From local to global: State reconfiguration and social mobilizationin Ambos Nogales, 1989-1996

Abstract

This dissertation examines the social construction of geographic scale by different actors in Ambos Nogales during the period 1989-1996. This period coincides with major changes in bilateral relations between Mexico and the United States resulting from negotiations prior to NAFTA, 1989-1994, and the first two years of the new agreement after it was passed in 1994. Transformations of community politics included changes in the conceptualization of space by local political agents (government officials, local NGOs, environmental groups and professional and economic associations). In the face of, or resulting from the institutional and socioeconomic changes produced in the border region, local groups are now pushed to present their specific demands in international forams. Working in new "spatial schemes", they now make efforts to connect their local realities and needs with the general framework of international institutions like NAFTA and the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission (BECC). The transformation of economic, political and social space has important implications for the social production of scale. Scales are divided into scales of regulation, which define landscapes administered by distinct decision-making bodies, and scales of meaning, which are collective or individual beliefs based on daily life experiences. After analyzing changes in the political strategies of local NGOs and government officials, I argue that the production of scale is an intrinsic element in social mobilization, providing the spatial construct that connects the different spaces where social movement find community support, political opportunities and mobilizing resources. This research expands our understanding of social mobilization processes by incorporating space and the conceptualization of space in the analysis. Space and scale are not ontological categories but social constructs with powerful discursive power for both state institutions and social movements.