Abstract

Mexico in Transition provides a wide-ranging, empirical and up-to-date survey of the multiple impacts neoliberal policies have had in practice in Mexico over twenty years, and the specific impacts of the NAFTA Agreement. The volume covers a wide terrain, including the effects of globalization on peasants; the impact of neoliberalism on wages, trade unions, and specifically women workers; the emergence of new social movements El Barzón and the Zapatistas (EZLN); how the environment, especially biodiversity, has become a target for colonization by transnational corporations; the political issue of migration to the United States; and the complicated intersections of economic and political liberalization. Mexico in Transition provides rich concrete evidence of what happens to the different sectors of an economy, its people, and natural resources, as the profound change of direction that neoliberal policy represents takes hold. It also describes and explains the diverse forms of resistance and challenge that different civil-society groups of those affected are now offering to a model the downsides of which are becoming increasingly manifest.
'Mexico in Transition is a wonderful collection that will provide readers a broad and insightful analysis of the impact of twenty years of neoliberal policies and the ways that Mexicans have responded to these changes.' Judith Adler Hellman, author of Mexico in Crisis 'A superb collection of essays on matters of labour, the peasantry, migrants, indigenous groups, women, export industries, and debtors, that brings to light the "other side" of neoliberalism, namely the problems it creates and grass-roots efforts to redress the problems.' Susan Eckstein, Latin American Studies Association 'A must read for anyone interested in the political economy of development.' Michael J. Watts, University of California
Gerardo Otero is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Latin American Studies Program at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.