Territorial Development. A vision for the future

Socio-spatial inequalities around the world are evident, especially in developing countries such as Mexico, with deep territorial discrepancies that have persistently existed over time and have now become more pronounced. They are appear in the differences in economic growth, productivity, income, and pollution in regions, states, and municipalities, and in their contribution to the national domestic product, in the volume of their population, family income, creation of jobs, infrastructure, access to and quality of social services, schooling, access to job training, degree of deterioration of their natural resources, their cultural policies, their governance and level of affirmation of democracy. They show a socially and territorially fragmented country.

The study of territory is a central unit in economic and social life. It is in the territory where resources are invested and seek conditions for its accumulation, so its productive, financial, technological, cultural, social, and environmental structures are being transformed, as well as the forms of government and interactions with the outside world, a situation that gives rise to a variety of spaces with great disparities among them and with great need to be studied.

Socio-spatial inequalities have been a matter of permanent interest for scientists, who have developed various analyses and conceptual frameworks both to understand the dynamics of unequal territorial development and to propose public policies aimed at achieving a more balanced territorial development. Regional development theories and proposals have been developed for many years, but their applications and outcomes have been insufficient. As a result, new approaches have emerged, including those that incorporate the territorial dimension into development studies.

The territorial development approach involves the creation of knowledge in various disciplinary areas and topics: regional and urban policy, new frontiers in regional science, economic growth and regional development, localization of economic activity, institutional factors in urban and regional development, spatial econometrics, innovations in space, sustainable development, natural resources, and environment, social policies, and territorial cohesion. The country requires professionals who are at the forefront of these fields of knowledge, who are competent to design and manage territorial public policies from a social, economic and environmental perspective, with the support of frontier technology linked to geographic information, to achieve the ambition of the territories and thus promote a more balanced development for the 21st century, with the support of innovative applications —such as data mining, social network analysis and bibliometric analysis— that allow for comprehensive studies of the territory, in addition to projecting the results through geographic information systems.

UNAM’s National School of Higher Studies Leon Unit (ENES León, Spanish initials) offers a degree in territorial development with the commitment to train specialists with in-depth knowledge of the territory to diagnose and evaluate current problems from a multidisciplinary perspective, as well as to contribute to the assessment and monitoring of territorial public policies at different scales (national, regional, state and municipal).

Some of the students and alumni who decided to study territorial development were looking for a degree that would allow them to contribute something positive to society. Territorial development is an innovative, diverse and interesting perspective, with an integral vision of social, economic and environmental problems, which can contribute with alternative solutions through public policy proposals from the approaches of economic and social management, environmental management and territorial governance.

UNAM is a member of the U7+ Alliance of World Universities, a network whose purpose is to encourage tasks that generate an impact on public policies. In this field, the study of territory is relevant because it supports decision-making in the face of the challenges posed by problems such as climate change, energy transition, socioeconomic inequalities, civic commitments, and justice throughout generations. In addition, the world of territorial development incorporates projects of high technological innovation, data intelligence and artificial intelligence, which are necessary to solve these and other problems.

ENES León contributes to UNAM’s internationalization model through the promotion and continuity of student and academic mobility activities, with the insertion of our students in universities in different countries. It is an essential pillar within the university’s mission to achieve globalization, which promotes academic, cultural, and linguistic training, and allows students to acquire a different vision of the territory by sharing experiences with institutions and students from all regions of the world, and serves as a reference for current generations.

Let’s explore the process through the experience of one of the members of the second promotion (2017-2021) of the bachelor’s degree in Territorial Development at ENES León.

RENATO DÍAZ SAUCEDO IN HIS OWN WORDS
My vision of the territory has changed. As Dr. Susana Suárez, founder of the program in Territorial Development, says metaphorically: “By studying this discipline, one acquires a lens with a territorial vision that can never be removed.” This approach allows those who study it to have a critic perspective on society, economy and what surrounds the territory in order to learn about current problems and their possible origin, or at least their evolution.

Before starting my degree, my approach was more than limited; I may have observed social and economic problems or environmental crisis and recognized socio-territorial problems, but I did not understand their effect on space, the relationship that exists between the different dimensions of territory, the importance of hierarchies, institutions and the community, and the collaboration that must exist to achieve development.

During my time as a graduate student in Territorial Development, I have come to realize that territorial situations are not isolated; territory is a social construction that, together with specific physical conditions and resources, generates changing contexts and interesting positions. I now recognize the social agents that influence territory and its processes. Those of us trained in the territorial development perspective understand that these agents are not always individuals and that there is a constant struggle for power over natural, human and intellectual resources.

Our weekend getaways were filled with relation between the theory seen in class and the territorial reality that was observed. The conditions in front of us became increasingly identifiable, and we began to enjoy our training in contexts outside the classroom. These brief and carefree visits to the territory were approachable to us thanks to the hunger and courage of energetic students, eager to experience and learn about the problems that today’s society faces. Faculty formalized these efforts which, thanks to the channels provided by UNAM, would become the perfect complement to the theoretical knowledge acquired in the classroom.

As the months went by, both students and faculty realized that the efforts being made would have to be constant and progressive, and that the work had to be carried out at all possible scales, starting from the local level and with the hope of transcending administrative boundaries to more distant horizons. So, the work began in the nearest unit, the community of Los Tepetates, close to ENES León. Teachers and students were able to work hand in hand with children from El Nigromante elementary school, highlighting the value of their community as a dimensional element that generates a particular sense of belonging and, therefore, develops a territorial identity, among other things.

At the regional level, multiple field trips have taken place, with clear and specific objectives resulting from the concrete territorial reality. In this way we transcended the administrative and jurisdictional limits of ENES Leon. In Zacatecas, Mexico, for example, we analyzed the impact of a huge brewery on nearby rural communities, the use of resources, and the dynamics surrounding this economic activity. In San Luis Potosí and the Comarca Lagunera, the territorial dynamics of metropolitan areas were observed. In the case of the city of San Luis Potosí, its metropolitan area also includes the city of Soledad de Graciano Sánchez, an area of great economic growth with recent foreign investment, but with enormous territorial disparities in the different economic and cultural regions of the state.

The Comarca Lagunera metropolitan area is made up of the cities of Torreón, Gómez Palacio and Lerdo, in the states of Coahuila and Durango. Here we observed the role of responsibility that the Peñoles mining company has acquired with the communities in the region. The company has had a negative environmental impact; however, it has been an important source of employment and has provided the communities with electricity infrastructure and paving. Thanks to its sponsorship, a school was created to provide additional development opportunities for the children. It is evident that environmental damage remains; however, there is potential for economic and social development.

The bachelor’s degree in Territorial Development continues to make these kind of efforts with new generations and to promote study in rural and urban areas. Additionally, there is the opportunity to be part of internationalization activities of higher education in its academic, research and cultural fields, thanks to the support of UNAM and the constant ambition of students to be part of student mobility plans. In my case, in the summer of 2019 I was able to travel to Spain thanks to Francisco José Cantarero Prados Ph.D., an undergraduate professor who for personal reasons had returned to his homeland. He made the necessary arrangements for the Department of Geography of the School of Philosophy and Literature of the University of Málaga to host a bachellor’s degree student for two months, thanks to the SEP-UNAM-FUNAM scholarship. The objective was to strengthen my education through an international re focused on research methods. A dream came true: since I was a child I dreamed of visiting Europe and thanks to UNAM it was becoming a reality.

I had the necessary support to learn the fundamental aspects of research and its realization in academic works. I received advice from the research methods themselves to the contribution in matters of cartography and use of information. I learned not only to investigate and map, but also to learn about the life and, consequently, the territorial context of southern Spain. I had the opportunity to live with incredible people who live in a touristic scenery along the Costa del Sol, something similar to what happens in Cancun and its area of influence.

These territorial lenses that I acquired in the classroom allowed me to generate relationships, and to understand that similar situations replicate all over the world, although with particularities and differences. On a personal level, I gained from experiences that are not easy to measure on any scale. Lucky because in summer, in Europe, there is a break from classes, so the possibility of doing field work presented itself and with the very capable members of the department, who are still my friends, we organized a trip to Marbella to observe and analyze the coastal dune system that crosses the entire Spanish Costa del Sol up to the border with Portugal. Near the end of my stay, I had what was perhaps the most enriching experience, traveling to Scotland and activating this new approach to the territory in a personal way.

I got to know everything about Edinburgh and Dundee, from the world famous sites to the smallest and most hidden villages. I was able to recognize the context and the territorial dynamics of the country and, above all, to confront them with what I had seen in Spain. The most important thing was that I was able to appreciate what we have in Mexico in relation to Territorial Development. The stay in Europe activated my “research mode” and openned my eyes to what is also happening in our national territory: the methods and models of work, the enormous and diverse base of natural resources that the country has, the social conditions on which we build economic models. I continue to understand that in everything there are nuances and different ways of seeing, to achieve the development of the territory.

It should stand out that during the pandemic, the objective to provide us with the greatest amount of knowledge and skills, even with remote opportunities, did not stop. Thanks to the efforts of Jairo Reyes Plata Ph.D., second generation undergraduate students from the second promotion were able to take part in the Global Forum on Climate Change organized by Yale University and, later, by the University of Pennsylvania. In this forum we attended workshops and conferences, in addition to contributing as an institution in a project accompanied by the municipal government of Leon to understand and expose the social, economic and environmental needs of a rural community and its role, to later, in a pilot test of the local government, implement the use of eco-technologies to solve their problems.

Thus, we were able to have our work entitled “Untapping the Environmental and Social Benefits of Photovoltaic Cells to Contribute to a Sustainable Rural Community in Guanajuato, Mexico” published on the website of the North American university (https://bit.ly/3HO8DbB), in what has been one of our first contributions to international research. In the short life of the degree, other colleagues have been able to carry out academic stays in Colombia through programs that have allowed them to study for a whole semester. As for me, I continue to be part of virtual activities at the University of Málaga, thanks to the relationships I was able to establish during my stay.

Efforts have not stopped: the academic staff, the coordination of the degree, the General Secretariat and the management of ENES León are in constant contact with companies, institutions and national and foreign NGOs to offer mobility opportunities and thus generate proposals for solutions to current problems.

I do not regret studying a degree in Territorial Development. I invite young people concerned about current social, economic and environmental conflicts and dynamics —such as extreme poverty, environmental damage, lack of economic and development opportunities in our country— to visit ENES León and talk to the academic staff to open their outlook on what future they want to build. You will not regret it.

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