The schoolteacher’s social movement of the Ciénega Region in Jalisco: The use of global strategies in a local context

Abstract

During the economic crisis experienced in Mexico at the early eighties, a group of elementary school teachers of the Ciénega Region in Jalisco organized themselves as a social movement to fight back against the government in search for their social and labor rights. Since the start, their specific target was to democratize the teacher’s union (SNTE). Currently, the movement continues their struggle by means of innovative strategies such as the intensive engagement in social networks. In this path, they have achieved a rather dramatic change of perspective, going from the local to a global point of view. This article focuses on the issue of how this group of teachers has been able to accomplish this transformation of its political perspective. The theoretical framework of Alain Touraine concept of historical fields supports the corresponding analysis.