Academic Centers
Name of Center
Interdisciplinary Program for Third Sector Studies, El Colegio Mexiquense, Mexico
http://www.cmq.edu.mx/corinv_piets.htm
About the Center
The program intends to impulse research on the nature, dynamics and evolution of the Third Sector in Mexico and in the world. With a special focus in study of Civil Society Organizations, PIETS tries to develop methodological and theoretical tools that allow us to analyze their problems, potentialities and relationships with other economic and socio-political actors.
Name of Director: Alejandro Natal Martínez
Major Education Initiatives:
- Diploma on Civil Organizations, Political Culture and Citizens’ Participation
This Diploma explores the important role that Civil Organizations have played in the transformation of the political culture and in the reorganization of the spaces for citizen participation in Mexico.
- Permanent Seminar on CSO Study
The Permanent Seminar on Civil Society Organizations is a discussion group that, once a month for the past five years, gather academics, professionals and researchers to present articles and current research related with CSO. This group is conformed by 20 specialists from you change universities of country interested in topics related with CSO.
- Workshop on Civil Society Analysis
This discussion group is conformed by academics, researchers and graduate students that are working on civil society. The TASC gathers every last Thursday of the month to discuss articles, thesis or papers related with the study of Civil Society in Mexico and the world.
Major Research Projects:
- CSO and Government Relations
Project: “CSO as suppliers of leadership”, by: Alejandro Natal
Abstract: This project intends to analyze how civil society organizations provide government agencies with leaders and different perspective on social intervention.
- CSO and Development and Social Capital
Project: “CSO and Poverty Alleviation: Microcredit”, by: Carola Conde.
Abstract: This project is oriented to identify similarities and differences between the different CSO that work with microcredit schemes. It analyzes the mechanisms Microcredit CSO use to generate and manage the saving of their low-income beneficiaries.
- Project: “CBO and Social Capital Formation in Rural Areas”, by: Alejandro Natal.
Abstract: This project intends to analyze some of the factors involved in the generation of social capital in poor rural areas of Mexico. From a transaction costs perspective it studies the vertical and horizontal social relations at the local level and how they built up to inhibit or enhance social capital. It takes account of both the structural factors (associative) and the attitudinal (reciprocity and cooperation) to explain how social capital can effectively work to promote local development.