Defense of the Thesis of Gerardo Gordillo Zamora
Defense of the Thesis of Gerardo Gordillo Zamora
Defense of the Thesis of Gerardo Gordillo Zamora
Thesis title: Circuitos económicos del sector solidario presentes en la cultura de comunidades de Comalcalco, Tabasco, México. Obtained the qualification EXCELLENT CUM LAUDE.
On April 22, the doctoral student Liher Pillado Arbide made the reading of the Doctoral Thesis entitled: Circuitos económicos del sector solidario presentes en la cultura de comunidades de Comalcalco, Tabasco, México.
Directors: Dr. Urko Lopez Odriozola (MU – Business Faculty) and Frederick Freundlich Dr. (MU – Business Faculty).
Summary of the thesis:
The reflections developed from the Latin American Solidarity Economy, Economic Anthropology and other related scientific studies, unlike the "main stream" of economic science, in its most orthodox facet, offer concepts to look at and understand the economic task in which solidarity is involved. These concepts have been systematized into three foundations that can serve as theoretical support to explain the meaning and viability of social and solidarity economy initiatives:
a) The human being, economic agent, as a complex being with multiple motivations among which appear solidarity, cooperation and reciprocity.
b) Markets as a social construction which allows the existence of various markets determined in each context.
c) A posture before the needs and resources: The Paradigm of abundance.
Taking these fundamentals as a theoretical framework, we worked through the Grounded Theory methodology with a population sample from two communities in Comalcalco, Tabasco, Mexico, to recognize and characterize the economic circuits of the solidarity sector present in their culture: gratuity or altruism, family participation, correspondence and association, and so on, contribute with some clues for the implementation of a solidarity market called "Living networks of social economy".
The study yielded enough data to corroborate the strong impact of the economic circuits of the solidarity sector in the life of the two communities. To characterize these circuits, the concept was constructed: Concrete aspects of solidarity that are the hinge between the culture of a community and the economic solidarity circuits, and that allow the latter to be signified from the language, interests, needs, values and practices of the communities themselves.
These aspects in the two communities are: Relationships of mutual trust, help to the suffering and the helpless, management of resources for community goods, organization and cooperative work, and sharing what we have. The economic circuits of the solidarity sector appear combined in each of these Strands, and each Strand is interconnected with the others and with the set of cultural beliefs.
The greatest transformation suffered in the economic circuits of the solidarity sector within the two communities has been the aspect of sharing what we have. Being communities of peasant tradition, for many years the sustenance for life circulated mainly through the aspect of sharing what we have, that is, through economic circuits of the solidarity sector, but today it does so almost entirely through the circuit of exchanges of the private sector (supply-demand-merchandise-price): "everything is bought".
The solidarity market project is very pertinent because it touches part of the bottom of the felt needs, and has sufficient conditions of possibility given that solidarity is strongly incorporated in the beliefs and habitual samples of the culture of the two communities. To achieve its mission, it will have to take into account all the specific aspects of solidarity, since they are interconnected, and particularly characterize each community that is incorporated into the project. From there you can contribute to the democratization of the specific markets of these communities.