Cooperatives, Grassroots Development, and Social Change
Cooperatives, Grassroots Development, and Social Change

Author: Marcela Vásquez-Léon

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2017-03-14

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 0816534748

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"Provides a cross-country comparison of smallholder agricultural cooperatives in Paraguay, Brazil and Colombia, revealing immense opportunities and challenges for community development, empowerment, and social change"--Provided by publisher.

Cooperatives, Grassroots Development, and Social Change
Cooperatives, Grassroots Development, and Social Change

Author: Marcela Vásquez-Léon

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2017-03-14

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 0816536295

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Cooperatives, Grassroots Development, and Social Change presents examples from Paraguay, Brazil, and Colombia, examining what is necessary for smallholder agricultural cooperatives to support holistic community-based development in peasant communities. Reporting on successes and failures of these cooperative efforts, the contributors offer analyses and strategies for supporting collective grassroots interests. Illustrating how poverty and inequality affect rural people, they reveal how cooperative organizations can support grassroots development strategies while negotiating local contexts of inequality amid the broader context of international markets and global competition. The contributors explain the key desirable goals from cooperative efforts among smallholder producers. They are to provide access to more secure livelihoods, expand control over basic resources and commodity chains, improve quality of life in rural areas, support community infrastructure, and offer social spaces wherein small farmers can engage politically in transforming their own communities. The stories in Cooperatives, Grassroots Development, and Social Change reveal immense opportunities and challenges. Although cooperatives have often been framed as alternatives to the global capitalist system, they are neither a panacea nor the hegemonic extension of neoliberal capitalism. Through one of the most thorough cross-country comparisons of cooperatives to date, this volume shows the unfiltered reality of cooperative development in highly stratified societies, with case studies selected specifically because they offer important lessons regarding struggles and strategies for adapting to a changing social, economic, and natural environment. Contributors: Luis Barros Brian J. Burke Charles Cox Luis Alberto Cuéllar Gómez Miguel Ricardo Dávila Ladrón de Guevara Elisa Echagüe Timothy J. Finan Andrés González Aguilera Sonia Carolina López Cerón Joana Laura Marinho Nogueira João Nicédio Alves Nogueira Jessica Piekielek María Isabel Ramírez Anaya Rodrigo F. Rentería-Valencia Lilliana Andrea Ruiz Marín Marcela Vásquez-León

Cooperatives, Economic Democratization and Rural Development
Cooperatives, Economic Democratization and Rural Development

Author: Jos Bijman

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2016-01-29

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1784719382

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Agricultural cooperatives and producer organizations are institutional innovations which have the potential to reduce poverty and improve food security. This book presents a raft of international case studies, from developing and transition countries, to analyse the internal and external challenges that these complex organizations face and the solutions that they have developed. The contributors provide an increased understanding of the transformation of traditional community organizations into modern farmer-owned businesses. They cover issues including: the impact on rural development and inclusiveness, the role of social capital, formal versus informal organizations, democratic participation and member relations, and their role in value chains. Students and scholars will find the book’s multidisciplinary approach useful in their research. It will also be of interest to policy-makers seeking to understand the wide diversity of organizational forms and functions. NGOs, donors and governments seeking to support rural developments will benefit from the discussions raised in this book.

A Cooperative Approach to Local Economic Development
A Cooperative Approach to Local Economic Development

Author: Christophe Merrett

Publisher: Praeger

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13:

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Historically, the relationship between towns and surrounding farm families has ranged from suspicion to benign neglect. This book shows that rural America can be revived by uniting the interests of both farm and non-farm populations through value-added enterprises, especially those based on the principles of New Generation Cooperatives (NGCs). Instead of sending agricultural commodities out of the region to be processed, farmers and communities can collaborate to process the commodities locally, thereby adding value to the local rural economy. In this edited volume, nationally recognized scholars discuss the on-going challenges to the agricultural sector such as declining farm subsidies and commodity prices, and the strategies used by rural communities to respond to economic decline. Specific attention is paid to the role of NGCs as a specific form of value-added agriculture which has helped some rural communities to prosper. The NGCs, however, extend well beyond traditional agriculture to include grocery stores, day care centers, and other businesses that have not always been profitable in small towns. The broader objective of the book is to show how increased collaboration among farm producers, small businesses, and community leaders can promote economic development in rural regions.