DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR BEST PRACTICES FOR …



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Flying Circus Project

Summary

1.

a) Name

“Circo Volador (Flying Circus): Youth and Popular Culture in Mexico City”.

b) City / Town

Mexico, Federal District

c) Country

Mexico

2. Address

a) Street

Calz. de la Viga No. 146, Col. Jamaica

b) P.O. Box / Post code

C.P. 15800

c) City/ Town

México, D.F.

d) Country

Mexico

e) Telephone (52) 5740-9012 (52) 5740-3485

f) Fax: (52) 5740-0226

g) E-mail: circovolador@

3. Contact Person

a) Name

Dr. Héctor Francisco Castillo Berthier

b) Street

Sur 77 No. 90, Col. Lorenzo Boturini

c) P.O. Box / Post code

C.P. 15000

d) City / Town

México, D.F.

e) Country

Mexico

f) Telephone: (52) 5552-3218

g) Fax (52) 5552-6048

h) E-mail: berthier@servidor.unam.mx

4. Type of Organization:

Non-Governmental Organization

5. Partners:

National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA) / Ivonne Pérez Esquivel /Head Office of Promotion of Cultural Projects and Joint Investment. Governmental Organization, National.

a) Street: Hamburgo 115

b) P.O. Box / Post code: 06600

c) City / Town: Mexico City/D.F.

d) Country: Mexico

e) Telephone: (52) 55-14-71-49 (include code)

f) Fax: (52) 55-14-81-14

g) E-mail: pfpc@correo.conaculta.gob.mx

National Center of Competence in Research North – South (NCCR N-S). Frank Haupt- PAMS Coordinator. Governmental Organization, Switzerland.

a) Street: Steigerhubelstrasse #3

b) P.O. Box / Post code: 3008

c) City / Town: Bern

d) Country: Switzerland

e) Telephone: + (41) (31) 631-30-59 (include code)

f) Fax: + (41) (31) 631-85-44

g) E-mail: frank.haupt@cde.unibe.ch

Secretariat of Social Development of the Federal District (SDS)/Head Office of Equity and Development in the Federal District (DGEDS) / Dir. Pablo Yánez Rizo. Governmental Organization, local.

a) Street: Calz. México Tacuba 235 - 1er Piso

b) P.O. Box / Post code: 11330

c) City / Town: Mexico City/Federal District

d) Country: Mexico

e) Telephone: (52) 5341-41-83 (include code)

f) Fax: (52) 55-41-10-69

6. Financial Profile:

|Partners |Year 1 2002 |Year 2 2003 |Year 3 2004 |Year 4 |Year 5 |

| | | | |2005 | |

|Flying Circus |55,000 |70,400 |71,000 |97,625 | |

|66% | | | | | |

|National Fund for Culture and the Arts|13,600 |2,300 |11,400 |15,675 | |

|9% | | | | | |

|Head Office of Equity and Social |22,700 |13,600 |13,600 |18,700 | |

|Development of the Government of the | | | | | |

|Federal District | | | | | |

|17% | | | | | |

|National Center of Competence in |0 |25,000 |0 |0 | |

|Research | | | | | |

|8% | | | | | |

|Total budget US$ |91,300 |111,300 |96,000 |132,000 | |

|7. Summary: |

|In 1987, Mexico City was bombarded by the media on the subject of youth violence and gangs. “Drug addicts, assassins, pickpockets, |

|rapists, alcoholics, vagrants and gang members” were some of the terms used by both government and the media to describe youth in |

|working-class districts. |

| |

|Mexico now has approximately 25 million young people ages 12 to 24, at least half of whom are living in poverty or extreme poverty, |

|and no social policy has been designed to deal with their problems. |

|How can Action-Research contribute to a situation of this nature? |

| |

|This was the situation in which Action-Research began working in 1987 to assess the situation of working-class youth identified as |

|“gangs” to curb the growing violence and find mechanisms that would enable them to be reincorporated into a society that regarded |

|them as “adversaries”.This gave rise to the Flying Circus, whose name comes from the meetings we held in the streets when we used to |

|wonder what we should call ourselves. Most of them had animal nicknames (The Cat, The Flea, The Dark Animal, etc.) and they said, “We|

|are a bunch of animals, as though we were a circus…but with nowhere to land, we are a Flying Circus.” |

|As a result of that, we started looking for a place where we could bring our proposal down to earth, which we obtained a few years |

|later through a Loan and Restitution Agreement with the Government of the City, through which we were loaned a large, old, abandoned |

|cinema in exchange for restoring and maintaining it through the collective work of the young people involved, so that we could use it|

|for them. |

|8. Key dates: |

|February 1987: Beginning of Action Research Project with the aim of assessing the status of young working class people identified as |

|“gangs” to find the best way of reincorporating them into a society that regarded them as “violent enemies.” |

|September 1988: Start of nightly radio broadcasts of program entitled, “Just for Gangs” on 105.7 FM through which, over the following|

|three years, we began to make contact with the 1,500 youth gangs detected by the original diagnosis of the Research Project, whose |

|initial objective was “to lend a voice and presence in the media to those who had no way of pubicly defending themselves from the |

|attacks that denigrated them” and engage in a dialog with other important social actors for this groups (such as the police, parents,|

|teachers, social leaders, local authorities, alternative projects, artists and musicians, etc.) |

| |

|August 1989: First Youth Competition entitled, “Rock in the Concrete Jungle” in which 164 groups of various genres (including Punks |

|and Anarchists) participated, including some from other states. This established the Flying Circus as an emerging institution that |

|people could trust because of the transparent way the competition was organized, the open, inclusive invitation to participate, |

|music-related prizes to enable them to professionalize their work and the proposals to integrate most of the participants into new |

|areas of the project’s development. |

| |

|June 1990: Legal constitution of the organization with a public notary under the name of “Research and Development of |

|Sub-Metropolitan Projects” dedicated to developing projects to support youth under the Flying Circus banner. |

|October 1993: Start of broadcasting of second radio program, “The Tunnel: an underground passage to where it’s at.” until September |

|1995, on 1590 AM, where in addition to giving them a voice, we began to disseminate the archives on Youth Culture we had been |

|compiling since the start of the project, with the aim of professionalizing young people’s work so that they could publicize their |

|various cultural creations. This also set a precedent in Commercial Radio due to the fact that a private radio station was willing to|

|accept a project of this nature, which culminated in the broadcasting of one hundred hour-long, theme-based programs linked to youth |

|programs, including the participants’ independent creations. |

|February 1995: Signing of the Loan and Restitution Agreement with the Government of the City to use the Francisco Villa Cinema |

|(abandoned for over 10 years) which would be the future headquarters of the project and start of restoration proejcts with the |

|participation of youth and their families. This building, together with many others in the city, was part of a policy for providing |

|community services in the late 1960s. Over the years, however, the city government gradually washed its hands of these recreational |

|and cultural activities for the poor population and many of the facilities began to be abandoned and closed to the ´public. An |

|agreement of this nature was made possible by the visibility we had achieved through previous projects. |

| |

|July 1998: Inauguration of Flying Circus Center of Art and Culture and signing of the first inter-institutional collaboration |

|contracts with international and national organizations such as NOVIB (The Netherlands), AVINA (Switzerland), ASHOKA (US), SDS |

|(Mexico). |

| |

|February 2001: Start of two years of radio broadcasting of the third project called “Young People on Monitor”, at 88.1 FM on the most|

|important news station in the country (“Monitor”) within a solid, private firm, to present current youth projects to an adult |

|audience with a higher economic status, which provided enormous support for the Flying Circus project, as well as for the |

|dissemination of its everyday activities. |

|February 2004: Creation and design of website called , a page on graffiti resulting from a researh project |

|undertaken years before, which contains articles on the history and development of graffiti in Mexico and the world, with photographs|

|divided into categories and types of graffiti. This page received an award from the French page AMELATINE for the best Latin American|

|page on graffiti. The First Festival of Sub-metropolitan Popular Youth Culture “Youth Cult” was also held, with the support of NCCR |

|N-S (Switzerland) which sought to “stimulate and promote the participation of young people in processes that develop the creation of |

|alternative spaces to the exclusion caused by global changes.” This event enabled young people to be incorporated into broader |

|contexts, which in turn allowed them to interact with non-governmental organizations, the mass media, government and private |

|enterprise. |

|June, 2004: Special Mention Award as one of the Best Practices, ONU Habitat Program. |

|November, 2004: Second place in the Visionaris Award, UBS Bank/Ashoka. |

|9. Narrative: |

| |

|Situation Before the Start of the Initiative |

| |

|It is impossible to deny the demographic reality of Mexican youth. It is equally impossible to underestimate the importance of their |

|growing presence in society and their inevitable role in modernization and social change. But what will the future really be like for|

|impoverished youth in popular sectors? |

| |

|Establishment of Priorities |

| |

|Schools, which once permitted upward social mobility, have shown a limited ability to achieve this: the world of work no longer |

|offers the wide range of options it once did and instead, presents a series of obstacles that prevent a young person without manual |

|qualifications from finding a job in the labor market. He lacks traditional culture and values, which are no longer incorporated as |

|they were by previous generations. Families are weakened by the inability to offer their members a sphere of socialization capable of|

|orienting them during one of the most difficult stages of development: youth. |

| |

|Formulation of Objectives and Strategies |

| |

|Use “Common Culture” (Paul Willis, 1994) as the starting point for integrating values and reconstructing the social fabric between |

|the various social sectors, through the reinforcement of youth identities (towards the poor) and the construction and dissemination |

|of common languages (towards integrated sectors) together with the identification of partners that support the initiative, through |

|two main strategies: the negotiation of a physical space in which to undertake activities based on working class youth’s suggestions,|

|in order to act as a disseminator rather than a catalysts, to ensure that the thematic programming of the project of coherent and |

|facilitates the participation of various social groups. |

| |

|Mobilization of resources |

| |

|A key aspect of the implementation of the project involved obtaining the physical space for the project, which was granted through a |

|loan and restitution agreement with the Government of the Federal District. This old, abandoned 2000-square-meter cinema was restored|

|by the young people working on the project, who were given administrative and operational duties, in addition to acting as |

|instructors in certain workshops. |

|Nowadays, approximately 35% of the financial resources are obtained through the Joint Investment Agreements with various associates, |

|with which the work objectives are defined on the basis of an Annual Operative Program of activities. |

| |

|The remaining 65% of the funds required are obtained through the organization of events, such as concerts, cinema, theater, etc. |

|thereby completing the cycle of participation, since the contribution of the young people that attend these events, who are usually |

|in a better financial position, pays for the upkeep of the space and its activities, which in turn supports those who lack these |

|resources. |

|Financial reports on all the funds obtained and used in the projects are periodically submitted to the joint investors, by an |

|accountants’ office responsible for the project’s financial administration. |

| |

|Process |

| |

|As a result of the application of an Action-Research Model, we realized that the specific area where the Flying Circus is located is |

|characterized by varius problems and social conditions such as: |

| |

|Presence of several nearby slums |

|Frequent robberies and violence. |

|Poverty, addiction and street children. |

|Proximity to a large wholesale fruit and vegetable market. |

|Scant presence of police force. |

|Inefficient public services. |

|Lack of recreational and cultural options for the zone in general. |

| |

|The work method and strategy resulted from our imagining a “social limit” established at two extremes, which comprised a society of |

|exclusion, with rich and poor. |

|First of all we identified poor, excluded youth groups, which we set about contacting, to establish an “initial link”. We met with |

|them to find out what they thought, saw and/or produced, in other words, their skills and strengths, on the basis of which we created|

|archives and designed working proposals that would give them an opportunity to begin to influence their environment. |

| |

|At the opposite extreme, we found a sector of the population in which young people travelled, had free time, universities and spaces |

|to enjoy themselves and be in fashion, who constituted a minority with opportunities to obtain access to education, health and social|

|well-being. |

| |

|This led us to assess the status of youth and we decided to draw a horizontal line through the previous situations, which became a |

|“social infrastructure” represented in a cultural center (i.e. Flying Circus), seen as a “forum for social attention” which began to |

|sow and crystallize proposals by young people from the poorest groups, as well as being a neutral meeting point between the two poles|

|identified through our methodology. |

| |

|Involving the community in the remodelling, cleaning up and refurbishment of the area was an attempt to establish the site in their |

|everyday life, which enabled us to achieve a level of trust, which was reflected in the active, constant participation of the |

|population, which gave the participating actors an alternative forum for expression which they themselves had constructed. |

|The work has enabled us to re-appraise the creative work of young people, included various social groups and enabled the experience |

|to be publicized in the media, by sensitizing and inviting society to take a first-hand look at this reality, which few people know |

|about. |

| |

|It is worth pointing out that “social infrastructure” does not necessarily involve Flying Circus, since it can just as well be |

|substituted by a radio program, a competition, a workshop or a recording study, if people wish to repeat this experience. |

| |

|g) Results Achieved |

| |

|During its 14 years of work, the organization has achieved the following results: |

| |

|Intangible: |

| |

|Elaboration of a diagnosis of the zone |

|Identification, integration and work with existing social groups in the area, through activities that strengthen their social links, |

|which in turn permits the gradual reconstruction of the social fabric. |

|Construction of social networks with groups such as Neighborhood Assembly, Jamaica Market Assembly, and Assembly of Street Salesmen |

|in the Metro. |

|Coordination and work with government offices and NGOs. |

|Visibility of project as forum of expression and training for the benefit of the community. |

|Promotion of the process of social change |

|Reinforcement of institutions, with the support of international organizations. |

|Reappraisal, construction and reinforcement of youth identity. |

|Incorporation of gender perspective into the project’s concepts, strategies and actions. |

|Construction of empowerment processes for the population. |

|Creation of strategies that eliminate the process of social exclusion and discrimination. |

| |

| |

|Tangible: |

| |

|50 Training Workshops (over the past 3 years) |

|2 Summer Courses for boys and girls |

|25 Plays |

|350 Radio programs with youth-based themes |

|20 Movie Marathons |

|10 Wrestling shows |

|Book Club Service |

|1 Internet Page on Graffiti (in English and French) |

|1 Internet Page on the project |

|1 Young Artists’ Competition |

|1 Popular Youth Culture Festival |

|250 Concert and Musical Performances |

|5 Applied Research Projects |

|20 Academic Publications |

|5 Professional Theses |

| |

|h) Sustainability |

| |

|The project has established short- and long-term strategies, such as the creation of a Youth Observatory, which is able to influence |

|public policy design, using a multi-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary approach. |

|Incorporation of local social organizations, housing applicants, and traders’ and residents’ groups into work for the benefit of the |

|community. |

|Creation and coordination of Youth Studies Unit at the National University of Mexico (UNAM). |

|Processes have been established to diversify sources of financing and mobilize resources, by designing multi-disciplinary projects |

|aimed at youth. |

|Strategies have been designed to generate resources to achieve self-management of the project and permanent self-sustainability in |

|two years’ time, while continuing to establish Joint Investment Agreements, which will focus on various additional work proposals. |

|Links have been established with certain local governments (i.e. boroughs) to formulate plans and strategies for the social |

|development of youth. |

|A work area devoted to the reinforcement of institutions has been created. |

|The project now runs a social service program, aimed primarily at university students, particularly from the National University of |

|Mexico (UNAM). |

|Empowerment strategies such as workshops on sexuality, prevention of addictions, AIDS, Human Rights, etc. |

|Support of personal and social development of local children, through a Summer Course, with artistic, psychomotor and reflexive |

|attitudes as well as those involving civic training. |

|Incorporation of gender perspective, by changing cultural patterns such as machismo. Whereas before 95% of participants were men, |

|there is now a balance between the sexes, due to women’s participation. |

|Publication of book: Juventud, Cultura y Política Social (Youth, Culture and Social Policy), which provides a detailed explanation of|

|the applied research model. |

| |

|Lessons learnt |

| |

|On the basis of the social problems discovered, attempts have been made to support the people who fight to combat them. We have also |

|learnt to negotiate with the authorities, as a result of which the successes achieved have been widely publicized.. |

|In 1987, most young people lacked a clear sense of what “Institution” meant. Their only contact was with the police, through raids |

|(violent round-ups by police of young people in the streets). Ten years later, in 2000, 89% of the young people interviewed in the |

|National Youth Survey said that they distrusted politicians and institutions. The presence of independent spaces such as Flying |

|Circus created a climate of trust and opennessfor youth participation, as borne out by the reponse to the “Youth Cult” Festival in |

|2004. This has filled a gap in the city’s life because it offers something that used not to exist. |

|The “use” of commercial radio lent a voice to those who are not listened to and helped reduce the police operatives known as |

|“Gangdis” (gang dispersion) and police raids, through the denunciation of the violation of human rights and the unfair deprival of |

|freedom. |

|We learnt to negotiate with the City authorities and formalize a Loan and Restitution Agreement, which has now lasted for fifteen |

|years, as well as fulfilling the legal requirements for obtaining the necessary documents for running the forum. This has permitted |

|the use of abandoned spaces and allowed us to become involved in social policies. |

|The appropriation by the UNAM Institute for Social Research (IIS) of the Action-Research Project permitted the creation of a Youth |

|Studies Unit (July 2004). |

|The project began with a “sexist” view of the gangs (95% of the youths involved were male), which has been replaced by equal |

|participation by both genders. |

| |

|j) Transferability |

| |

|The Applied Research Model proposed by the organization can be applied in various spheres with similar characteristics found in |

|working-class areas of Mexico, as a result of which: |

| |

|If young people wish for a present and a future, they will have to become involved in designing and implementing it, since their |

|incorporation into dialog and negotiation guarantees sustainability. |

|Implementing an Action-Research project requires undertaking a diagnosis of the territorial area, which allows one to identify the |

|problems to be solved. |

|Training through productive and artistic workshops benefits the population, since it involves young people from the community and |

|enables mechanisms of recognition to be created within the community itself. |

| |

| |

| |

| |

|As for replicability: |

| |

|Three diagnoses have been carried out in territorial areas, to replicate the project and develop a model that will channel university|

|students carrying out their Social Service into local development programs. |

|A pilot program for Social Development was designed and implemented in the Álvaro Obregón borough between 1997 and 2000. |

|In Central America, particularly El Salvador, we have made contact with the “Homies Unidos” group for the integration of former |

|members of gangs known as “Maras” and in Venezuela, we have established links with the Institute of Town Planning of the Architecture|

|and Town Planning Faculty of the Central University of Venezuela, through research into safety in urban zones. |

|Research projects have begun to be implemented with other organizations, in an attempt to reproduce the project, through the creation|

|of “Youth for the City” brigades program, since preliminary results of the diagnoses revealed similar characteristics in other parts |

|of the city regarding the status of youth and society, which overwhelms and marginalizes them. |

|10. References: |

| |

|ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS: |

| |

|1) Castillo Berthier, Héctor, (2004), “My generation: Rock and Bandas’ Forced Survival Opposite the Mexican State”, In Rocking Las |

|Americas: rock, music. Cultures across Latin and Latin (o) America, University of Pittsburgh Press. 2004. |

| |

|2) Castillo Berthier, Héctor (2002), “De las Bandas a las Tribus Urbanas” (From Gangs to Urban Tribes), in Desacatos Journal, No. 9 |

|“Transgresiones”, Mexico, Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology, pp. (CIESAS), pp. 57- 71. |

| |

|3) Castillo Berthier, Héctor (2000), “Juventud, Cultura y Política Social: un proyecto de investigación aplicada en la Ciudad de |

|México” (Youth, Culture and Social Policy: an applied research project in Mexico City) (1987-1997), México, Mexican Youth Institute, |

|244 pp. |

| |

|4) Castillo Berthier, Héctor, (2000), “Rock y cultura juvenil en la Ciudad de México” (Rock and Youth Culture in Mexico City) in |

|Transforming Cultures in the Americas Latin American Studies Program, Cornell Universtiy. |

| |

|5) Castillo Berthier, Héctor (1994), “Violencia urbana y cultura en la juventud contemporánea. México”, in Ciudad y violencias en |

|América Latina, Alcadía de Cali, Serie Gestión Urbana, vol. 2, Quito. |

| |

|6) Castillo Berthier, Héctor (1993), “Popular Culture Among Mexican Teenagers”, Revista The Urban Age, Urban violence issue, vol. I, |

|no. 4, summer, World Bank, Washington D.C., pp. 7-10. |

| |

|7) Castillo Berthier, Sergio Zermeño and Alicia Ziccardi (1989), “Juventude Popular e Gangues na Cidade de México” (Working-Class |

|Youth and Gangs in Mexico City), Presenca journal, no. 14, Río de Janeiro. |

| |

| |

|PUBLICATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS |

| |

|8) Source: La Jornada newspaper |

|Author: Angel Vargas |

|Title: “Se consolida El Circo Volador como un Laboratorio Social'' (Flying Circus Consolidated as Social Laboratory). |

|Volume/no., Year 20, No. 7005 |

|Date: 27 February 2004 |

|Number(s) of page(s). Section – Culture |

| |

|9) Source: Reforma Newspaper |

|a) Author: Tania Gómez |

|Títle of Publication: “Hacen de los jóvenes promotores culturales” (Doing of the young cultural promoters) |

|Volumen/Number, |

|Date, 21 April 2000 |

|Number(s) of page (s). Culture |

| |

|10) Source: Reforma Newspaper |

|a) Author: Adrián Garay |

|b) Title of Publication: “De cine a Centro Cultural” (From Movie Theater to Cultural Center) |

|c) Volume/Number |

|d) Date, 14 February 1998 |

|e) Number (s) of page (s). Culture |

| |

|INTERNET PAGES |

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|Project page: |

|Graffiti page: |

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