The Community Program for Neighborhood Improvement in Mexico City

Abstract

This chapter provides a general overview on a successful citizen participation experience that emerged with the implementation of the “Programa Comunitario de Mejoramiento Barrial (PCMB)—Community Program of Neighborhood Improvement—in Mexico City, which has a direct impact on the quality of life of its beneficiaries. Paper is divided into two sections. The first one presents a basic theoretical and methodological framework for understanding the construction of new spaces for social development in Mexico. The framework emphasizes three reflection scopes: (1) the contemporary debate over the construction of citizenship and the idea of community social capital; (2) the benefits derived in a joint effort between the government and citizenry; and (3) the contextual elements that identify Mexico City as an analysis unit to reflect on citizen participation in Mexico. In the second part, an overhaul on a successful experience of citizen participation is set forth. This previous experience emerged with the startup in 2007 of PCBM in Mexico City. After the review of some results of this Program, it is possible to identify a nascent construction of the Community Social Capital with coordinated efforts of the Federal District Government and organized civil society. In addition, the data encourage considering that, such program enable the organization of society to endorse the demands solutions that would have an impact in their quality of life.