Francisco Zapata Discusses Mexico’s Development Models

Rights: Original version in Portuguese by Flávia Dourado and translation by Carlos Malferrari

Chilean sociologist Francisco Zapata

Sociologist Francisco Zapata, a professor and researcher at the Center of Sociological Studies of El Colegio de México, will be at the IEA-USP on June 9 and 11, when he will give two conferences on the relations between development models and the transformations of Mexican society.

Organized by the IEA in partnership with El Colegio de México, the two meetings will take place at 2 pm, at IEA-USP’s Events Room.

On June 9, the theme will be Tiempos Neoliberales in Mexico [Neoliberal Times in Mexico]. Zapata will discuss the flourishing of Neoliberalism and the resulting changes in the country’s labor market. The exposition will address particularly the 1982-2013 period, characterized by the transition from an industrialization model based on the replacement of imports to the transnationalization of the domestic market, and from a corporatist model of political domination to a democratic one. The discussant will be philosopher Reginaldo Moraes, professor at UNICAMP’s Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences, and the event will be moderated by sociologist Iram Rodrigues, professor at USP’s School of Economics, Administration and Accounting (FEA).

At the June 11 conference, Zapata will discuss Ciencias Sociales y Desarrollo Nacional en Mexico [Social Sciences and National Development in Mexico]. He will review the various stages of the relationship between the social sciences and the type of national development promoted by the Mexican State, focusing on the political, economic and social transformations that took place as Mexican society established itself. The discussant will be sociologist Bernardo Sorj, visiting professor at the IEA.

The Lecturer

Francisco Zapata graduated in Sociology from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and earned a doctorate in Sociology from the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes (France). He has been visiting professor at several universities around the world, including Yale and Notre Dame, both in the United States. He is currently a professor and researcher at the Center of Sociological Studies of El Colegio de México, where he studies trade union movements, labor relations and regional development in the Latin American context. His most recent books are Historia mínima del sindicalismo latinoamericano, published by El Colegio de México (2013), and Hacia una sociología latinoamericana del trabajo, published by Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (2010).