Week 2
Topic Oaxaca the City: economy, social structure and class relations, relation to the countryside, role in the space economy
Visit: city tour, including the neighboorhoods of recent migrants, and meetings with local activist groups
Week 3: Environmental aspects: Resources and alternatives to resource exploitation, environmental problems, role of the state and NGOs in providing alternatives, local initiatives
Visit: Ixtlán ecotourism project, interview with COVORPA youth group in Reyes Mantecón, an NGO working on reforestation and wildlife reintroduction
Week 4:The countryside: Peasant economy, regional ties, traditional and modern economic systems, ethnicity, local and regional economies, export production, land tenure
Visit: Teotitlán del Valle, Zapotec Town with weaving cooperatives
Week 5: Regional differences: Examination of the varied physical and human geography of the state.
Visit: Coastal trip: visit to Salina Cruz (Oaxaca's major industrial town), Juchitán (a Zapotec City with one of the first opposition governments in Mexico) and the Lagoon of Manialtepec, where we visit a reconstruction project after the Hurricane of 1997 and efforts at environmental preservation
(This visit offers the opportunity to stay at the coast for the weekend).
Week 6: Indigenous People: construction of ethnicity, ethnic and gender relations in Oaxaca and Mexico, political aspects, ideas and reality of local autonomy
Visit: San Pablo Etla, visit with Gustavo Esteva, interview with indigenous organizations in Oaxaca
Week 7: Village Stay: Students will be dropped off with families in different villages in the valley and the mountains
Week 8:Alternatives to development: reality and possibilites in Oaxaca