COMMUNITY CENTERS AND SOCIAL CAPITAL: THE OUTSTANDING DEBT

Abstract

Inhabiting becomes a strained and difficult experience in a society with high rates of
violence. As of 2003, the creation of Community Centers (CC) in Mexico mainly attempted
to tackle urban poverty challenges, although without losing sight of the necessary
strengthening of communities’ social fabric. The emphasis placed on the first objective,
which was mostly addressed through human capital formation, relegated social capital
creation to the background, causing the latter to not go beyond fostering social ties through
daily interactions among those attending the centers. The incentive that CCs could provide

to any progress in social fabric’s strengthening should translate into greater effectiveness in
the struggle against violence, which has been bleeding Mexico out for a long time.
Although this analysis would apply to the whole country to a large extent, we focus on the
particular case of Nuevo Leon.