Global Racisms Institute for Social Transformation

Investigating the relationships between academia and social justice organisations in Mexico.

This research project was designed to explore the relationship between academia and activism to understand what kind of academia and collaboration with the world of social organisations is required to make interventions for social transformation in more effective ways.

The project included the development of a research model, the mapping of organisations and collectives dedicated to social justice, interviews with their members, and lastly an encounter with these organisations and their allied academics, held in Mexico City, to give feedback on the process and generate a collective agenda.

This meeting was convened together with the Colectivo Copera to generate proposals for the construction of ethical-political principles that can guide the relationship between academia and organisations and collectives.

Participants

The mapping process identified nineteen social justice organisations operating in Mexico. Locally-operating organisations were based in Hidalgo; Mexico City, Guerrero; Jalisco; Campeche; Chihuahua; Chiapas; Yucatán; and Oaxaca. In addition, we interviewed four national networks and collectives and two regional networks. In total, 47 people participated across the nineteen interviews. 

Among the work topics of the organisations and collectives, we identified the following:

• Defence of territory.
• Human rights, indigenous and Afro-Mexican 
• Fight against racism 
• Rights of people with disabilities Cultural rights 
• Right to identity, memory and history, 
• Linguistic rights 
• Rights of Afro-Mexican women 
• Right to political participation of indigenous women, 
• Rights of LGBTTI people 
• Rights of young people and urban indigenous youth, 
• Rights of domestic workers, 
• Right to non-violence 
• Sexual and reproductive rights 
• Access to justice 

Project team

This project was developed under the direction of Professor Mónica Moreno Figueroa and operated in Mexico by Judith Bautista Pérez and Zenaida Pérez Gutiérrez.