Social Structure and Resilience in Mexican Agricultural Research Institutions

Social resilience is a multi-organizational process that involves innovation, support, protection and recovery capacities within communities and institutions. Here we present the analysis of the Colegio de Postgraduados (Graduate School) as an institutional experience of academic linkage. The main objective was to determine its resilience capacities, derived from the actions of its members as a community. Social network analysis was used to evaluate the academic collaboration activities reported by 86 % of the teaching population within the institution. The insight gained allowed us to analyze its organizational structure, which has been working on a differentiated way and has been focused on its researchers' linkages. We propose a new line of analysis that can account for the capacities of Mexican research institutions in strategic sectors, like agriculture, in order to explore new management possibilities of this intellectual capital.