Visitors & Friends > News > Releases > Social Sciences > Article

News Releases

March 12, 2003

Media Contacts: Monica Arciga (858) 534-6050 or Jan Jennings (858) 822-1684

CONFERENCE ON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGE
IN LATIN AMERICA TO BE HELD MARCH 24-25 AT UCSD

Political, social, and economic changes in Latin America will be explored at a research conference March 24-25 to be presented by the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies (CILAS) at the University of California, San Diego.

The four panel discussions on Civil Society and Political Transformation in Latin America will be held in the Deutz Room of the Copley Conference Center on the UCSD campus beginning at 9:30 a.m. each day. The events are free and open to the public.

According to Leon Zamosc, UCSD Sociology Department, “privatization, deregulation, and free-trade have had major effects on the strength of civil society in Latin America.

“In some areas of social life they have activated associational initiatives and stimulated the public involvement of voluntary organizations,” Zamosc says. “In other areas, there is increasing social exclusion and passivity. The conference will focus on these processes and their consequences for the quality and future of democracy in Latin America.”

The themes of the panel discussions are Civil Society in Latin America: Conceptual Approaches, Structural Changes and Civil Society, Civil Society and Democratic Institutions, and Social Movements and Democracies.

Among panelists participating in the discussions are Leonardo Avritzer and Carlos Pio, Brazil; Janet Kelley, Venezuela; Manuel Mora y Araujo and Isidoro Cheresky, Argentina; Philip Oxhorn, McGill University; Dan Levine, the University of Michigan, and Wendy Wolford, the University of North Carolina. UCSD faculty from several departments also will participate.

For further information on the conference, call (858) 534-6050.