Papers > By author > Gil-Vasquez Karol

Over the past two decades development economics has experienced a shift from standard neoclassical analysis to focus on institutions. While studying economic institutions is indeed important, evaluating their transformation and embeddedness (Polanyi 1944) is crucial for understanding and improving human wellbeing—especially in countries where market institutions are not fully broached. With that perspective in mind, the present paper considers the importance of culture in the evolution of institutions in Mexico by combining the concept of contact zones with eco-feminist economic a la Vandana Shiva. Contact zones analyze daily interactions of social spaces where culture and class meet and negotiate with each other (Pratt 1991). The contact zone between indigenous groups of Mexico and post-WWII development policies surfaced as a collective memory based upon Pre-Hispanic notions, allowing for a possibility of social and political autonomy through creating alternatives to the market system Mexico supplies us with an important case study for discussions of both post-colonialism, feminist economics, and cultural resistance and their interaction or contact zone that create other paradigms.