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This paper analyzes the access to social networks and trust as part of the social capital (SC) of orange producers in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, and identifi es, by means of statistical tests and an econometric model, the infl uence of SC on the adoption of innovations. The results show that access to social networks and level of trust are related to greater adoption of innovations, mainly organizational ones. The value of this research lies in the development of the social Trust Index, useful for future research. In this paper we do not show the density and between which actors the interactions occur in the social networks analyzed. It is concluded that the current SC of citrus growers is valuable but not yet consolidated, so public policy strategies should consider strengthening it so that innovation has a greater possibility of adoption.

The collapse of rice production in the State of Morelos is one of the results of the implementation of neoliberal politics in the agricultural sector. However, there are additional factors that have worsened the situation. This paper argues that one of them is the weak organization of the ejidatarios who grow rice. To substantiate this, this paper refl ects on the stages that the ejidatario organization has gone through since the twenties, when the ejidatarios fi rst began to cultivate this crop. It is possible to conclude that, except for Rubén Jaramillo’s attempt in 1926, they have never been able to build an autonomous organization, but have remained subject to the interests of the State and private entrepreneurs, which are contradictory and harmful to their own.

This paper analyzes the multi-functional dimension of the small-scale farmer’s backyard in communities in several State of Morelos regions. This backyard, often called solar, huerta (orchard), or calmile in Náhuatl, is an area near the house where food, seasonings, medicinal plants and fl owers are produced. Depending on the agricultural, ritual and family cycles, this place is also used for raising animals, as a storage area, and as a place for recreation, relaxation, get-togethers and lodging for pilgrims. It´s a place linked to the feminine universe, an extension of housework and care duties, which conserves and enhances the biodiversity of the zone, local knowledge and practices. The variety of animal and plant species in the backyard is related to its size, the area’s climate, the type of soil and, above all, to the cultural tastes and traditions of the family and community. Despite modernity, urbanization, and population growth in locations near the urban centers, the families, mostly the women, have preserved the backyards, as they provide them with food security and a certain degree of autonomy from the market, environmental services (microclimates, water retention, soil improvement, carbon capture, and others), ornamental and medicinal plants, and occasionally some income from the small-scale sale of what is produced in it.

A signifi cant number of people from Indian towns live in Mexico’s cities, where they maintain expressions of legal experiences of their communities, which are confronted with public law. These experiences make the tradition, cultural identity and contact with the community of origin persist; in a conjuncture of vindication, denial and confrontation, in the daily experience of the capital city.

The generation of educational programs to strengthen sustainability and social intervention favors vital scenarios for the constitution of territories of equity and weaves together social action networks to achieve active citizen participation in the decision-making of their own communities, thereby positively affecting their social fabric. This paper presents the results of the research that systematized the pedagogical practice of the Simón Rodríguez Educational Corporation, where social intervention programs with vulnerable communities in the city of Cali and the District of Valle del Cauca are carried out. Research on educational programs that enable strengthening sustainability and Social intervention was conducted from case studies, while the innovative experience of the Simón Rodríguez Educational Corporation was systemized from the perspective of its protagonists, reconstructing it, articulating its various interpretations to build its internal logic and strengthening it to contribute to the development of education in the particular case of social intervention and civic construction from the perspective of sustainability in educational programs. It is also done in a participatory process, to the extent that the story to be built is lived, accompanied and refl ected on with the participants. This allows establishing the directionality of the research to give consistency to the essence of the inquiry. From the information obtained, it can be concluded that educational programs allow strengthening social intervention and sustainability with populations in vulnerable situations, as they are given a place in their construction, thus raising their self-esteem, especially among people who did not know how to read or write and that had not completed primary or secondary education. In addition, teachers and managers proposed carrying out an Educational Innovation, highlighting as a teaching-learning mechanism the importance of participation with social actors, protagonists of a community development process, which is linked to the extent that it makes it possible to provide an education different from the traditional one. The Educational Innovation is part of the guiding thread that wove the experience from the thematic nuclei, which were tied together to consolidate in the semantic axes, as voices that were repeated in the memory of the investigative process, to consolidate a story, that is reconstructed, interpreted, strengthened and that can be written boldly, with the signifi cance that the actors expressed: a proposal for social intervention from the “Simón Rodríguez” Educational Corporation.

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