Estrategias sociales de prevención y adaptación Social ... - La RED

Introduction
Virginia García Acosta, ciesas, Mexico
Social networks, as Sociologist Manuel Castells has pointed out, are as old as humanity
itself; they have recently, however, adopted new forms; they constitute the organizational
structure of our time. 1 A network is a set of interconnected nodes; there is no
center to it, only nodes through which knowledge is distributed and decisions are made. The
flexibility and adaptability that are inherent to modern networks give them a great advantage
over other, older types of organization of a rational and hierarchical nature, Anthony Giddens
points out. 2 The advances in information and communication technologies have had a
decisive influence on this, minimizing and even eliminating space and time barriers.
It is precisely the deployment of a network, the “Network on risk and vulnerability: social
strategies for prevention and adaptation”, which constitutes the most relevant result of
one of Foncicyt’s successful projects which, having been conceived some four years ago,
reaches its final phase with this publication which we are now putting at the disposal of specialists
interested in the topic.
The invitation made by the Science and Technology International Cooperation Fund
(Foncicyt, by its Spanish initials), based on the Agreement signed by Mexico’s Conacyt and
the European Union, was published in 2008. It was launched in pursuit of three goals: to
strengthen the scientific capabilities of all participants; to contribute to understanding and
therefore enable the generation of proposals aiming to solve problems that are common to
all the international community in connection with environmental and socio-economic
matters; and to promote cooperation between Mexico and the European Union based on
contributions with a local and regional focus. It was implemented through financial support
earmarked for the creation of international networks or for the development of research
projects between participating countries.
A group of Mexican social researchers found this invitation to be a valuable opportunity
for launching an ambitious proposal: the constitution of a Mexican-European network of
specialists on risk and disasters, with the specific aim of finding key factors that would increase
the possibility of preventing disasters. One of the central ideas of the project was to
make use of existing lessons deriving from those practices that have increased the chances
for survival of groups exposed to risk. Few of these have become learned lessons; most of
them have barely been identified within so-called comprehensive risk management.
This group, whom we may refer to as the original network, was made up of three researchers
with heterogeneous professional histories and ages, but who had valuable elements
1
Manuel Castells (2000), La sociedad red, Madrid, published by Alianza Editorial.
2
Anthony Giddens (2009), Sociología, Madrid, published by Alianza Editorial.
17