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The market and the State are often presented as the solutions for social inequality, climate change and authoritarianism. But experiences in Central America show that this isn't always the case. Could cooperatives offer a better way forward?
The first cooperatives emerged in urban England in opposition to industrial capitalism, in Germany in opposition to usury in the rural area, and in Canada in defense of their cultures and agriculture. But over time, most cooperatives were co-opted and subsumed by colonial and patriarchal capitalism. Based on experiences in Central America, this book shows how to reinvent cooperatives through which peasants and indigenous peoples can reduce social inequality, mitigate climate change and democratize our societies.
René Mendoza Vidaurre is a consultant with the Winds of Peace Foundation and an adviser to Central American rural organizations. He has published many articles on agricultural organizations, including La paradoja del café, el gran negocio mundial y la peor crisis campesina (2002).
Acknowledgements
List of Figures, Tables and Graphs
Introduction
1 The Reason for This Book
2 Perspectives for Understanding Cooperatives
3 The Framework
4 The Reason behind This Book
5 How This Book Was Written
6 Spirit of Cooperative Innovation
7 Formation
8 Organization of the Book
1 An Organizational Challenge to the Peasant and Cooperative Crisis
1 Introduction
2 The Hacienda Institution and Peasant Resistance
3 The Peasantry and Their Persistence
4 The Role of Organizations in the Global System
5 The Desired Reinvention
6 Conclusions
2 New Structures with Momentum
1 Introduction
2 Transformational Structures of Cooperatives
3 Cooperative Structure on a Larger Scale and in Conflicted Realities
4 The Old Path
5 Structures as Institutionalized Innovations
6 Conclusions
3 Mechanisms or Fulcrums for Changing Structures
1 Introduction
2 The Mechanism of Oligarchy and Democratization in Organizations
3 Internal and Interrelated Mechanisms
4 Rooted in Community, Cooperative, and Peasant Values
5 Principle of Stewardship
6 Protection Mechanisms for Spaces Free from Capitalism
7 Conclusions
4 Conditions That Facilitate the Perseverance of Innovative Structures
1 Introduction
2 Cooperative Intelligence
3 Governing Markets through Commercialization
4 Information and Technology, Challenges for International Cooperativism
5 A State for the Public Good
6 Building on Universities
7 Conclusion
5 Differentiating Processes in Spaces of Transformation
1 Introduction
2 Awakening and Changing
3 The Arduous Path of Being Daring
4 Strategic Actions
5 Awakening, Audacity, and What Is Distinctive about Reinventing a Cooperative
6 Conclusions
6 Cooperative Articulation with the State, Businesses and Churches, Embedded in Glocal Arenas
1 Introduction
2 The Convergence of Ideas in the Last 60 Years
3 Toward a New Confluence of Ideas?
4 Cooperative Integration: Tiers and Scale
5 Strategic Articulation
6 Regional Umbrella
7 Conclusions
Conclusions
1 A Book Which Is the Fruit of Involvement
2 Keys to Cooperatives
3 The Third Social Sector
4 Contribution of Cooperatives That Reinvent Themselves
5 Opening Windows
Bibliography
Index