Social Movements in the Mexico City Airport Controversy

Globalization, Democracy, and the Power of Distance

Bibliographic Data

ID6304737
AuthorsDiane E Davis (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Diane Davis (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Christina Rosan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Christina D Rosan (0000-0002-7744-449X, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Year2004
Volume9
Issue3
Pages279-293
Publication date2004-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMobilization An International Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1086-671X • E-ISSN: 1938-1514
PublisherMobilization Journal (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.17813/maiq.9.3.866k48l6876gt317
OpenAlexW2338244508
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited2

How did a relatively small group of uneducated peasants organize a movement to halt a huge national project to build a showcase airport outside Mexico City? This article applies the power of distance model, an analytic perspective for understanding social movement origins and successes based on an understanding of state-society relations, to the mobilization by indigenous peasants against the proposed Texcoco airport. The power of distance perspective focuses on relative distance or closeness of relations between the state and its citizens. Our findings indicate that, despite democratization in Mexico, the distance between local peasants and the newly elected Fox administration was widened by its neoliberal, globalizing focus, which partly explains the escalation of the anti-airport mobilization. On another dimension, peasants were able to bridge the distance between them and global human-rights networks using an indigenous rights frame and global communications media to bring new resources to bear and eventually force the Fox administration to withdraw the airport proposal

Democracy · Democratization · Economics · Economy · Globalization · Human rights · Indigenous · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Social movement · Sociology · State (computer science · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Politics and Society in Latin America

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